- 4-4 



JUNE, 1909. 


No. 2. 


Rensselaer 
Polytechnic Institute 
Bulletin. 


THE FORMAL OPENING 

-OF THE- 

RUSSELL SAGE LABORATORY 


DESCRIPTION OF THE LABORATORY 


COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS 

—AND-— 

TITLES OF GRADUATING THESES 


TROY, N.Y. 
June, 1909. 


Published Quarterly in March, June, September and December at 
Troy, N. Y., by the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. 


Entered January 20, 1902, at Troy, N. Y., as Second Class Matter under the Act of 
Congress of July 16, 1894. 











T he Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute was established in 
1824 as a School of Natural Science. A Course in Civil 
Engineering has been given since 1835. Courses in Civil, 
Mechanical and Electrical Engineering and in Natural Science, 
leading to the degrees Civil Engineer (C. E.), Mechanical 
Engineer (M. E.), Electrical Engineer (E. E.) and Bachelor 
of Science (B. S.) are now given. Also various special courses 
in Chemistry, Drawing, Surveying, etc., not leading to a degree. 




Rensselaer 


Polytechnic Institute 


Founded 1824 


THE FORMAL OPENING 

OF THE 

RUSSELL SAGE LABORATORY 

With a Description of the Laboratory and Illustrations 
Showing Exterior and Interior Views of the Building. 


THE COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS 


AND 

THE TITLES OF THE GRADUATING THESES 
ALSO ILLUSTRATIONS SHOWING SOME 
OF THE FACULTY AND STUDENTS 


Troy, N. Y. 
June 15-16, 1909 













TABLE OF CONTENTS. 


FORMAL OPENING OF THE RUSSELL SAGE 
LABORATORY. 

PAGE. 

Introductory Remarks by PALMER C. RiCKETTS, 

President of the Institute, .... 7 

Address by ROBERT W. DeF'orest, representing 

Mrs. Sage,. 15 

Address by Jesse M. Smith, President of the 

American Society of Mechanical Engineers, . 21 

Address by Lewis B. Stillwell, President-elect 
of the American Institute of Electrical Engin¬ 
eers, .33 

Description of the Building and Apparatus, . . 45 

COMMENCEMENT EXERCISES OF THE CLASS 

OF 1909. 

Address by ONWARD Bates, President of the 

American Society of Civil J^ngineers, . . 69 

Titles of Graduating Theses bf:t!ie Class of 1909, . 91 


'GIFT 

THE INSTITUTION 

Ott' 13 1909 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 




PAGE. 

Mr. Russell Sage . 4 

Mrs. Russell Sage . 5 

View of Sage Laboratory from the South-west. 6 

View of Sage Laboratory from the North-east. Boiler House.. 8 

Athletic Field, Club House and East End of Sage Laboratory.. 10 

Sub-basement Plan of Sage Laboratory. 12 

Basement Plan of Sage Laboratory. 14 

First Floor Plan of Sage Laboratory. 16 

Second Floor Plan of Sage Laboratory. 18 

Third Floor Plan of Sage Laboratory. 20 

View of Campus, West of Sage Laboratory. 22 

View of Campus, South-west of Sage Laboratory. 24 

View of Campus, South of Sage Laboratory. 26 

Large Lecture Hall, Sage Laboratory. 28 

Steam Laboratory with Valve Setting Engine in the Gallery.. 30 

From Steam Laboratory into Gas Engine and Refrigeration 

Laboratory. 32 

Steam Turbines. 34 

Suction Gas Producer. Gas Engines. Refrigerating Plant. 36 

Looking Through Hydraulic Laboratory to Steam Laboratory 38 
Steam Pumps of Hydraulic Laboratory. Switch Board in the 

Distance. 40 

Small Weir Flumes and Water Wheels. 42 

Turbine and Large Flume. Steam and Centrifugal Pumps.. 44 

Corliss Engine from Hydraulic Laboratory. Switch Board, 
Charging Air Compressor, Centrifugal Pump and Water 

Wheels. 46 

Centrifugal Pumps for High heads. Water Wheels and 

Charging Compressor. 48 

Fan Room. Gas Engines. Hot Air Engines. 50, 

Corliss Engine for Valve Setting. Water Meter. Testing 

Tank. Instrument Room. 52 

Heating and Ventilating Laboratory. 54 

A Corner of the Oil, Gas and Fuel Laborator}’-. 56 

Junior Drawing Room. 58 

A Typical Recitation Room. 60 

General View of the Electrical Engineering Laboratory. 62 

Main Switch Board. Generator Sets. Motor Generators and 

Frequency Chargers. 64 

Generators and Motors. 66 

Generators and Motors. 68 

Lecture Room. Physics and Electrical Engineering. 70 

Electrical Measurements. 72 

Measurements in Light. 74 

Photometric Rooms Showing Long Photometric Track. 76 

Electrical Design Drawing Room. 78 

The 600,000 pound Testing Machine . 80 

Class of 1909 with some of the Faculty. 82 

Class of 1909. 84 

Class of 1910. 86 

Classofi9ii. 88 

Class of 1912. 90 

The Executive Committee of the Rensselaer Union. 99 


















































































































View of Sage Laboratory from the South-West 






































































THE FORMAL OPENING OF THE RUSSELL SAGE 
LABORATORY. 


The formal opening of the Russell Sage Laboratory 
took place June 15, 1909. The exercises consisted of 
introductory remarks by Palmer C. Ricketts, President of 
the Institute, and addresses by Robert W. De Forest 
of New York city, who represented Mrs. Sage, Jesse M. 
Smith, President of the American Society of Mechanical 
Engineers, and Lewis B. Stillwell, President-elect of the 
American Institute of Electrical Engineers. 

Introductory remarks by Palmer C. Ricketts: 

“ Ladies and Gentlemen. — We are here to-day to 
formally open the Russell Sage Laboratory which has 
been built recently with part of a fund given last year by 
Mrs. Russell Sage as a memorial to her husband, who died 
in 1906. In a letter dated January 21, 1907, Mrs. Sage said: 

“ ‘ Dear Mr. Ricketts. — I have told you of my intention 
to give one million dollars to the Troy Polytechnic, and 
I know, from my conversation with you and from what 
Mr. Robert W. DeForest has reported to me of his interview 
with you, the general purposes for which you intend to 
use it. 

“‘I will immediately send you my check for $100,000. 
If it does not accompany this letter it will follow it and 
I shall be ready to pay the balance, upon your request 
whenever it may be needed, at any time after May i, 1907. 

“ ‘ I write this letter so as to make my gift, to which 
I attach no conditions, a personal obligation upon me, and 
in the event of my death before consummating it, upon my 
estate. It is right that you should have such a letter 
before you begin to make your plans. 

“ ‘ I am quite willing that this gift should be announced 
pursuant to your desire at the meeting of your trustees 
and of your alumni, to be held, as I understand, some ten 
days hence, and to leave the form of announcement to you, 
except that in making the announcement I should like to 
have the fact of my own and Mr. Sage’s previous relations 
to and interest in the Polytechnic made apparent, as a 
reason for the gift, and as differentiating the Polytechnic 



View of Sage Laboratory from the North-East. Boiler House 




























from other institutions who have made applications to 
which I have not responded, and with which neither Mr. 
Sage nor myself had any personal or official relations. 

Sincerely yours, 

Margaret Olivia Sage.’ 

“ Both Mr. and Mrs. Sage had been interested in Troy 
institutions for many years. Mrs. Sage was graduated at 
the Emma Willard School. Mr. Sage’s nephew, Russell 
Sage, 2d, was graduated at the Institute in the class of 1859 
and Mr. Sage himself was a member of the Board of Trustees 
for ten years, from 1896 to 1906. 

In fact a considerable part of Mr. Sage’s life was spent in 
Troy. His early business experience was obtained here. 
He was elected to Congress from this district and served 
two terms from 1854 to 1858. In 1863 he moved to New 
York and began the business career which afterwards placed 
him among the greatest financiers of the country. During 
this career he was president of more than twenty corpora¬ 
tions. He was especially interested in the development of 
the transportation systems of the country, was a promoter 
and manager of railroads and at the time of his death a 
large part of his vast wealth was invested in railroad securi¬ 
ties. 

“ One of the most important events in the history of the 
Institute, with the exception of its foundation, was its 
reorganization in 1849-50 by that very able director B. 
Franklin Greene. In a remarkably interesting review of 
the whole subject of scientific education abroad, published 
in 1855, he clearly stated the object of the reorganization 
as follow^s: 

“ ‘ Its objects were thenceforward declared to be “ the 
education of architects and civil, mining and topographical 
engineers upon an enlarged basis and with a liberal develop¬ 
ment of mental and physical culture,” and again, “ and now 
it may be proper here to state in another form the objects 
originally proposed in the reorganization of the Rensselaer 
Institute. These objects were to develop the original and 
peculiar excellencies of this institution into a true poly¬ 
technic establishment on a liberal basis and with elevated 
aims.’ 

“ Separate courses in topographical engineering and in 
mining engineering were shortly afterwards established and 
some of the most eminent and successful of our alumni were 
graduated with the degree of mining engineer. The curric- 


9 



Athletic Field, Club House and East End of Sage Laboratory 



















ulum for a course in mechanical engineering was also 
printed in the catalogue for several years, though this course 
was never really established. It was soon recognized that 
the financial condition of the school did not permit the 
proper equipment and support of such courses and develop¬ 
ment upon the broad lines outlined by Director Greene was 
for a while arrested. 

“ In the first paragraph of the letter of Mrs. Sage reference 
is made to the general purposes to which the gift was to be 
devoted. Ever since Mr. Sage had become a trustee I had 
taken occasion at intervals to tell him that we greatly 
needed a school of mechanical engineering. With an inti¬ 
mate knowledge of the history of the school and of the great 
work it had accomplished, I nevertheless realized that it 
was a school of civil engineering only and not a polytechnic 
institute. Furthermore I thoroughly understood that 
recent enormous advances in mechanical and electrical 
engineering rendered additions to our curriculums and 
equipment imperative if we were to remain among engineer¬ 
ing schools of the first rank. I believed that this enlarge¬ 
ment of the field of the mechanical and electrical engineer 
was to continue in the future, as it had in the past few 
years, in geometrical rather than in arithmetical progression 
and that it was not possible to inaugurate a single curric¬ 
ulum, of a practical length, that is of four or even five 
years’ duration which would even now give a student a 
proper preparation for the practice of these three branches 
of engineering, leaving out of question the certain increased 
requirements of the future. 

“ I believed the time had now come to lay the foundation 
for a ‘ true polytechnic establishment ’ by the addition 
to the existing two courses in civil engineering and science 
of two more engineering courses which would be followed, 
I expected and expect, by post-graduate schools to which 
all these are a necessary pre-requisite. After an interview 
with Mr. Robert W. DeForest, the adviser of Mrs. Sage, dur¬ 
ing which these views were explained at length, I wrote him 
on November i8, 1906, a letter containing the following 
paragraph: 

“ ‘ It is a very great school of civil engineering, 
and it needs most a school of mechanical and electrical 
engineering to round out its work. This should most 
properly be called the Russell Sage School of Mechanical 
Engineering, and it would form a memorial to Mr. Sage, 
and to Russell Sage, 2d, C. E., who was graduated in the 


11 






^AGE building • RENSSELAER, POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE 

’troy ky 





























































































class of 1859. It would be a perpetual memorial of enor¬ 
mous educational value.’ 

“ The faculty of the Institute concurred in these opinions 
and at a meeting held January 26, 1907, it was 

“ Resolved, That in the opinion of this faculty the 
establishment of schools of mechanical and electrical en¬ 
gineering would be advisable and would be of great benefit 
to the school, provided the board of trustees has at its 
disposal sufficient money to properly inaugurate such 
schools. 

Resolved, That in the opinion of the faculty the use¬ 
fulness of the school would be enlarged if it were a true 
polytechnie institute and not as at present practically only 
a school of civil engineering. 

“ Resolved, That we believe the establishment of well 
equipped schools of mechanical and electrical engineering 
would be a long step towards changing the school into a 
true polytechnic institute. 

“ At a meeting of the Board of Trustees held March 14, 
1907, it was 

“ Resolved, That courses in mechanical and electrical 
engineering, leading to the degrees. Mechanical and Electri¬ 
cal Engineer, be established at the institute, and that a 
committee consisting of the Prudential Committee, Vice 
President and Treasurer of the board be appointed with 
power to do whatever may be necessary to inaugurate such 
courses. 

“ The schools being thus established, mechanical and 
electrical laboratories were necessary and in consequence 
the Russell Sage Laboratory was constructed. It speaks 
for itself. And it speaks also not only for the taste and 
constructive ability of the architects, Messrs. Lawlor and 
Haase of New York, but for the great practical knowledge 
and high sense of duty of Dr. W. L. Robb and Professor 
A. M. Greene, jr., who are responsible for the general 
arrangement of rooms and the equipment of the structure. 
The building and contents are valued at $405,000. Of 
this amount $300,000 of the million she gave us were taken 
from the donation of Mrs. Sage and the remaining $700,000 
have been placed, by resolution of the Board of Trustees, 
in a Russell Sage fund to be kept forever intact and used 
as an endowment for the department of mechanical 
engineering. 

“ Such is the history of this great gift and of the purpose 
to which it is to be devoted. On behalf of the Board of 
Trustees, Faculty, Alumni and other friends of the school 


13 



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I hereby publicly acknowledge our great gratitude to the 
donor. Nor can I refrain from expressing admiration for 
her sound judgment, determined purpose and splendid 
Christian character shown by donations for educational 
and charitable purposes which, while they will forever per¬ 
petuate the name of her husband, will not the less be monu¬ 
ments to her intelligence, her discrimination and her 
altruism.” 

Address of Mr. Robert W. De Forest: 

“ Mr. Chairman, Graduates and Friends of the 
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.' —This is the first 
time I have been in Troy at this institution. I have had 
the pleasure of sitting awhile at your alumni meeting and 
noticing the spirit of democracy and informalism with 
which that meeting was characterized, and being a Yale 
man I find myself singularly at home. 

“ Now, I am here to represent Mrs. Sage and to express 
her appreciation of the way in which her gift to this insti¬ 
tution has been used, and I may say also I am here a little 
to represent myself, because I want to speak a little inde¬ 
pendently. There are several features which characterize 
Mrs. Sage’s gift to Rensselaer. In the first place it came 
unasked; and I must beg President Ricketts’ pardon; he 
did not apply; it was Mrs Sage who applied to him for 
preliminary information about this institution before she 
carried out her purpose. In that respect it was not like 
the relation of Mrs. Sage to other institutions, educational 
and otherwise. There were some who did not wait deli¬ 
cately, as this institution did. Another point is, that 
having received a million dollars, Rensselaer did not ask 
for more. In that respect it is unlike some other insti¬ 
tutions and not having asked either originally or for more, 
Rensselaer has received as large a gift as Mrs. Sage has 
made to any educational institution. So modesty has its 
own reward. It came very appropriately to an institution 
connected with the city with which she herself and her hus¬ 
band had been long connected, and it came to an institu¬ 
tion that deserved it and has used it wisely. 

“ There is a remarkably broad range in Mrs. Sage’s 
gifts — whether it be in taking nuts to the squirrels in 
Central Park, or feeding the birds there, or whether it be 
in giving each one of the laborers in Central Park a little 
Christmas gift, or whether it be filling that park with rhodo¬ 
dendrons for the benefit of the public of New York city, 
or in restoring the governor’s room in our city hall, or in a 


15 


LECTUi^E 



BUILDING ' I2£N55eLAEB POLV-PECHNIC lN5TI"rUT*E 














































































































































































































































gift to an institution of learning like this, or in a gift to the 
nation such as she made of Constitution Island — they all 
come from one root, one keynote of human sympathy, and 
that is one reason why it must be pleasant and grateful for 
any institution to receive something from Mrs. Sage, and 
she will be particular!}^ pleased with one application which 
has been made of this gift. Now I am speaking of that 
magnificent building which bears the name of her husband 
unasked, because there was no string to her gift, no 
condition; she asked for no memorial. vShe did, as 
givers can wisely do when they give to wise trustees, and 
they should not give to any others; leave these trustees 
absolutely untrammeled in what they should do with the 
money placed at their disposal. In that respect it is a 
model gift to a scientific or collegiate institution. But 
there is one particular feature in the way in which her 
money has been used which I know is very grateful to her, 
and that is in a part of it being used to increase the salaries 
of the professors and a little of the president’s. 

“ I was impressed when I first met President Ricketts 
and asked him some questions, with the fact when he told 
me that your professors as a rule were receiving no more 
than $2,400 or $3,000 and that the salary of the president 
was not very much above that figure. Now, that is a 
piece of self-denial on the part of president and professors 
that in these days ought not to continue. Twenty-five 
years ago I know that was not singular to our institutions 
of learning and I know it is not singular to man}^ of our 
institutions even now, though it ought not to be, but the 
standard of living has changed, the standards up to which 
professors and presidents have to live has risen and I was 
amazed to find that in an institution of this standing and 
this age and this reputation within a few years that extraor¬ 
dinary low standard existed. Your president in his very 
flattering remarks has brought to my mind an illustration 
with regard to the rise in the standard of living. I did 
serve on the Tenement Commission of 1900 and I had the 
pleasure of serving with one of your alumni, Alfred T. 
White, whom I see here, and one of the questions brought 
before us was whether as a legal obligation we should not 
compel builders of tenement houses to put in baths. I 
declined to do so as a matter of legal obligation, but we 
hoped that many enlightened owners in response to a 
natural demand would do so. I afterwards served as head 
of our Tenement Department for two years and was greatly 
surprised to And in casting up accounts, I do not mean 

17 





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figures, accounts of work done at the close of my adminis¬ 
tration, that out of all the tenements built during these 
two years under this new law, without any obligation what¬ 
soever on the part of owners to put in baths, and thus a 
hundred million dollars was spent in the city of New York, 
more than ninety per cent of the apartments in these tene¬ 
ments had baths. The standard of living in New York 
tenements had been raised to such a point as to create a 
demand which enlightened owners thus sought to recognize 
and profit by. I was so impressed with this that when I went 
to my college commencement at Yale and met our venerable 
President Dwight he asked me how the tenement propo¬ 
sition was getting along, I told him this fact as illustrating 
the rise in the standard of living and I said ‘ I graduated 
from college in 1870, we are now in 1903. When I was in 
college I don’t remember a single student in Yale who had 
a room with a bath and there were only four baths for all 
Yale university located in the basement of the college gym¬ 
nasium.’ He smiled and said, ‘ De Forest, you think that 
is a great rise in the standard of living. I graduated in 
1849, j^st twenty-one years before you did. When I was 
in Yale there wasn’t a single student but had to go with his 
bucket to the college pump and bring the water to his room, 
and there wasn’t a single student that did not have to 
empty his own slops, and w'hen I became a tutor in 1850 
and with some of the younger officers of the faculty pro¬ 
posed that there should be an innovation in this particular 
and that a single solitary colored man should be employed 
to go to the college pump and bring the water to the stu¬ 
dents’ room and empty their slops, we were opposed by all 
the members of the faculty who were old on the grounds 
that it was a luxurious innovation and detrimental to stu¬ 
dents’ independence. But we carried the question of 
water carrier by a vote of one. Now, what do you think 
of the rise of the standard of living between your time 
and mine? ’ 

“ The standard of living has been so raised now that 
certainly every college professor and college president de¬ 
serves a room with a bath. I hope this rise in salaries 
will not necessarily stop here. If we criticise Rensselaer at 
all it is that it is a little too modest in the expression of its 
wants. You need more buildings, you need more rise in 
your salaries, you want here the very best men; you have 
certain supreme advantages at Rensselaer; you are con¬ 
centrating your educational efforts in certain direct lines 
on which you can concentrate them. You have in that 


19 


JUNIOR 0R/4WIN6 ROOM 



'THIRD FLDOC. PLAN 

^AGE BUILDING ■ E£N55ELAEe. POLVTECHNIC IN5T1TUTE 

TftOY, KT 






















































































respect an advantage over the great universities which are 
extending in this direction, but you have the increasing 
competition of these universities. Your object here is 
primarily study ; you are competing with institutions who, 
some people think, as a primary purpose have the gratifi¬ 
cation of social ambition or opportunity for athletic suprem¬ 
acy. There is one criticism applied to one of our larger 
institutions of which I hope you will never be guilty. A 
doting father of a son who was entered as a freshman at a 
large university — I wouldn’t say which one — visited his 
son after several months had elapsed and said, ‘ George, 
how do you like it? ’ Said he, ‘ Father, it is great, it is 
just great being in college here, there is only one thing they 
should change.’ Said the father, ‘ George, what is that 
one thing? ’ vSaid he ‘ It would be perfect, father, if they 
only omitted all the literary exercises.’ I know in this 
institution there is no proposition to omit all the literary 
exercises.” 

Address of Mr. Jesse M. Smith: 

“Ladies and Gentlemen. — When Stephen Van Rens¬ 
selaer on November 5, 1824, founded this institute and 
stated its purpose to be, ‘ the application of science to the 
common purposes of life,' he laid a foundation broad enough 
and deep enough upon which to erect a university of tech¬ 
nology. We learn fromThahistory of R. P. I. by Professor 
Ricketts, however, that it was modestly callad the ‘ Rens¬ 
selaer School,’ and the Board of Trustees publicly announced 
that the school was prepared to give ‘ instruction in chem¬ 
istry, experimental philosophy and natural history with 
their application to agriculture, domestic economy and 
the arts; and also for teaching land surveying.’ There 
were two professors, Amos Eaton, professor of chemistry 
and natural philosophy and lecturer on geology, land sur¬ 
veying, etc., and Lewis C. Beck, professor of botam^, miner¬ 
alogy and zoology. There were twenty-five students. The 
degree of bachelor of arts was given after one year and 
master of arts at the end of a second year of study. Much 
attention was given to field and laboratory w^ork; in fact a 
circular issued in 1826 stated that the school was ‘ limited 
to an Experimental Course in Natural Science,' and it was 
confined principally to botany, geology and mineralogy. 

“ After nine years, in 1833, the name was changed to 
‘Rensselaer Institute,’ With this higher sounding name 
came an effort toward higher education, and in 1835 there 
was established ‘ a department of mathematical arts, for 


21 




View of Campus West of Sage Laboratory 















the purpose of giving instruction in engineering and tech¬ 
nology.’ At that time the degree of civil engineer— C. E. 
— was established and was given to eight graduates in the 
department of mathematical arts; eleven years after the 
founding of the school. The course of study still covered 
only forty weeks of one year, and there were only three 
professors and one assistant. A circular issued in 1835 said: 
‘ One year is sufficient for obtaining the Rensselaer degree 
of Civil Engineer, for a candidate who is well prepared to 
enter. Graduates of colleges may succeed by close appli¬ 
cation during the twenty-four w'eeks in the summer term.’ 

Of the forty weeks required by this course, the mornings 
of four weeks were devoted to ‘ extemporaneous speaking 
on the subjects of logic, rhetoric, geology, geography and 
history,’ and the afternoons to composition, exercises in 
various mathematical arts, and national and municipal 
law. What would the graduate to-day think of securing 
his degree after only forty weeks of work and giving ten 
per cent of that time to oratory, composition and the law? 
There is no doubt, however, that the graduates from all the 
technical schools of this country sadly need more training in 
English composition and rhetoric than is now given them. 

“ After another period of eleven years, another epoch 
and a long step forward was made, when B. Franklin Greene 
became senior professor in 1846. After a careful study of 
the scientific and technical institutions in Europe Professor 
Greene thoroughly reorganized this institution upon the basis 
of a general polytechnic institute, and it was then called the 
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The managers resolved 
that ‘ their field should be narrowed and more thoroughly 
cultivated,’ and their efforts ‘ restricted to matters imme¬ 
diately cognate to architecture and engineering.’ The 
somewhat irregular and optional course requiring but a 
single year, was then superseded by a systematic and 
thorough curriculum requiring at least three years. As 
stated in a pamphlet issued at that time, the managers had 
‘ no immediate expectation of realizing more than a very 
partial development of their plans ’ for a polytechmc insti¬ 
tute. They proposed first to develop the general, that is 
the common scientific basis of the professional courses, and 
then develop the two specialties of civil and topographical 
engineering and defer any attempt to develop other special¬ 
ties until more favorable conditions could be realized. The 
new curriculum showed the effect of the study of the French 
schools. Its course considerably resembled the three years’ 
course of I’Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, while 


23 



View of Campus South-Wf,st of Sage Lap.okatokv 














the part forming the ground work of the higher technical 
studies resembled the curriculum of I’Ecole Polytechnique. 
By the year 1854 the courses in civil engineering and natural 
science had been well developed. In 1857 the course in 
topographical engineering was added, but it was abandoned 
in 1866, only five men having taken the degree of T. E. 
In 1858 the four year course was established in civil engi¬ 
neering. In 1862 the course in mechanical engineering was 
added to those in civil and topographical engineering and 
natural science and all four courses were extended to four 
3"ears, the first two years being the same in all. The course 
in mechanical engineering did not, however, materialize, 
and students who wished to pursue their studies in mechani¬ 
cal engineering were obliged to go abroad, there being no 
established schools in this country at that time teaching 
that branch of engineering. In this connection I am 
prompted by the kindly words of introduction of Professor 
Ricketts to say; that one of the regrets of my life has been 
that I did not remain with the class of ’69 for another year 
and take my degree in engineering at R. P. I. before going 
abroad. 

“ I may also say; that had there been in ’69 such a course 
in mechanical engineering as exists at the Institute to-day, 
there would have been no necessity for students going 
abroad to study Mechanical Engineering. I may add, how¬ 
ever, that a study made at any time, of engineering abroad 
cannot fail to be of very great benefit to engineering stu¬ 
dents as well as to engineers. It is well to know how engi¬ 
neers, in other countries, think and how they work. The 
course in topographical engineering having died in 1866, 
a noble effort was made in that year to establish a course 
in mining engineering under the able direction of Professor 
Maynard, but it succumbed in 1871 to adverse conditions, 
after graduating twenty-three men. The same fate befell 
the course in natural science, so that in 1871 there remained 
only the course in civil engineering to represent the general 
polytechnic school which was the dream of Professor B. 
Franklin Greene. While the institute in 1871 ceased to be 
a polytechnic institute except in name, it was still an excel¬ 
lent school of civil engineering, and has grown in excellence 
and importance as a school of civil engineering from that 
day to this. 

“ The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, however, has a 
higher destiny than the education of men in a single branch 
of the profession of engineering. Van Rensselaer laid a 
broad foundation for a general polytechnic institution. 


25 



View of Campus South of Sage Laboratory 













B. Franklin Greene designed and organized a complete 
superstructure to be placed on that foundation, but only 
succeeded in building a portion of it. The present director 
by his individual energy, by his tact in interesting other 
members of the faculty, and by his ability in causing friends 
of the institute to appreciate its needs, has succeeded in 
preserving the good work done by his predecessors and has 
added to it, until now there are three courses in engineering 
where but one existed before. Who will complete the 
noble design and bring about a realization of the dreams 
of the founder and the organizer of the institute? A Uni¬ 
versity of Technology, a true General Pn/ytechnic Insti¬ 
tution. My appeal to-day is for a University of Technology. 

“ In this eighty-fifth year of growth of the Institute, 
mechanical engineering as a branch of the profession has 
finally been recognized, and in a worthy manner. Friends 
of the institution realizing and appreciating the good work 
which it has done in one branch of engineering have con¬ 
sidered it worthy to undertake work in other branches of 
the profession, and they have shown their appreciation by 
making possible these splendid buildings filled with the 
latest and best apparatus to aid a fine corps of professors 
in the education of engineers in several branches of the 
profession. The Institute now takes its rightful position 
with other institutions, founded many years later in this 
country-, in the education of mechanical engineers. 

“No engineering work of importance can progress far 
without the mechanical engineer. Is there a railway to be 
built; the Civil Engineer makes the reconnoissance and sur¬ 
veys and lays out the line; the Mechanical Engineer designs 
and builds the dredges, steam shovels, rock drills, air com¬ 
pressors, the track laying machinery for building the road, 
and constructs and erects the bridges. Before the rails 
can be laid they must be made—by the co-operation of the 
Mining, Metallurgical and Mechanical Engineers. The 
railway, even after it is built, is of no commercial value 
until the Mechanical Engineer has designed, constructed 
and put into operation the locomotives and cars upon it. 
Is a mine to be developed; the Mechanical Engineer designs 
and builds the hoisting and pumping machinery as well as 
the crushing, ore handling and dressing machinery. Is 
a water power to be harnessed and transmitted by elec¬ 
tricity; the Mechanical Engineer designs and builds the 
machinery for excavating the dam foundation as well as 
that for handling the material for erecting the dam; he 
designs and builds the turbines that convert the water 


27 



Large Lecture Hall, Sage Laboratory 



































power into the mechanical power that drives the electric 
generators, and he co-operates with the Electrical Engineer 
in the building of these generators. 

“ Engineering has taken such an im^portant part in the 
industrial activities of this country that no industry can 
hope to become important unless it be entrusted principally 
to engineers. The varied knowledge required in the man¬ 
agement of the varied industries of the country has caused 
and inevitably will hereinafter cause the engineer of prom¬ 
inence to be more or less a specialist in one or more branches 
of the profession, but before any engineer can rise to emi¬ 
nence in any branch of the profession he must have acquired 
by study or practice, or both, a great deal of information 
in other branches. An engineer, however diligently and 
effectively he may do his work in his chOvSen specialty, who 
never even tries to look beyond his own circumscribed 
horizon, can never become a great engineer. The fields 
covered by the various branches of the engineering pro¬ 
fession overlap each other in so many different directions 
that it is impossible to determine even approximately their 
various boundary lines. 

“It is characteristic of the practice of the engineering 
profession that the engineer never knows what he is going 
to be called upon to do next. New conditions suddenly 
arise, an accident occurs; the engineer must decide quickly 
and accurately what is best to be done, and then do it 
promptly and surely. If the work to be done happens to 
be outside of his specialty and there is no one besides him¬ 
self to call upon to do the work, he cannot be excused from 
doing it because he was not taught how to do that particu¬ 
lar work while at school. If he has been well grounded in 
the principles of engineering while at school, he will not be 
surprised by, or feel himself incompetent to solve, any prob¬ 
lems that may come up in his practice. If he be a good 
engineer he will solve those problems himself without call¬ 
ing in specialists except to work out details of the general 
scheme. 

“ The establishment of the courses of mechanical and 
electrical engineering in addition to civil engineering at the 
Institute simply means that the trustees and faculty have 
recognized the demand for a higher and broader education 
in engineering, and that the friends of the Institute have 
provided means permitting that demand to be realized. 
A student entering the Institute selects that course which 
at the time seems most attractive to him or which he has 
been pursuaded to take by his parents or friends or the 


29 
























professors or because his chum is taking the same course. 
He goes through the course, wins his coveted degree of 
M. E. or C. E. or E. E. and is launched into the practice 
of engineering. Whether he receives the degree of M. E. 
or C. E. or E. E. he cannot know in advance nor will it be 
well for him to know, that his practical work will be along 
the lines of that branch of engineering indicated by his 
degree. It often happens that a young man with an M. E. 
degree in his pocket is called upon to assist in making a 
railway survey, or a man with a C. E. degree finds himself 
trying to design a steam engine, or an E. E. graduate is 
ordered to report on a water power. These different 
courses of study leading to these various degrees are right 
and proper and very valuable to the 3^oung engineer; but 
no one of them should be considered superior to the others, 
and each should be so complete in itself that a graduate 
from either course would not be surprised or feel himself 
incompetent when called upon to solve an engineering prob¬ 
lem which might be classed in the specialty of another 
course. 

“ After all, these various courses of instruction only con¬ 
stitute the school education of the young graduate in en¬ 
gineering; it is just the beginning of his education as an 
engineer. It teaches him how to think and reason accu- 
rateh^ and correctly and informs him of possible sources of 
further knowledge. Every graduate from the Institute, 
whatever his degree, is entitled to, and should receive, the 
same fund of knowledge and information in order that he 
may start even with the others in the race for success in 
the profession of engineering. 

“ The instruction in engineering at the institute may be 
expressed by the following equation, using the degrees as 
symbols: 

M. E. + C. E. + E. E. = School Education in Engineering. 
The initial letter of each quantity of the first half of the 
equation may be canceled out, as a negligible quantity, 
leaving the equation: 

E + E -I- E = School Education in Engineering, 
and in my opinion every graduate is entitled to all of it. 

“About sixty years ago B. Franklin Greene reorganized 
the Institute along the lines of a celebrated school of en¬ 
gineering in France. Forty years ago that French school 
was conferring degrees corresponding to the four degrees 
in this country of mechanical, civil, metallurgical and chem¬ 
ical engineer. The instruction was identical in all four 
courses. The application of that instruction, by the prep- 


31 



From Steam Lahoratoky into Gas Engine and Refrigeration Laroratory 































aration of a separate project or thesis every month of the 
last two years of study was along the lines of the specialty 
indicated by the degree. The diploma conferring the 
degree of engineer of arts and manufactures, at that time 
stated on its face the specialty in which the student had 
applied his instruction, but to-day the diplomas make no 
mention of the specialty; all are alike. Every graduate 
from that school has had the same opportunity to obtain 
his school education in engineering; all have begun their 
practice on the same basis, and all have applied their knowl¬ 
edge to such special work as came to them in their practice. 

Is it not possible that in the future demand for a still 
broader and more fundamental school education in engin¬ 
eering, at this Institute, will require that all graduates shall 
receive the same general degree in engineering and that 
after, say ten years of practice, when each graduate has 
discovered what his specialty is and what he is best fitted 
for, he may return to the institute and be examined for a 
degree in his chosen specialty? I hold for the highest pos¬ 
sible school education for the engineer without regard to 
specialty.'' 

Address of Mr. Lewis B. Stillwell: 

“ Ladies and Gentlemen: —The dedication of a new 
hall of science is always an occasion of interest. The 
dedication of a splendidly equipped laboratory of mechan¬ 
ical and electrical engineering by that institution, which 
was the first civil school of science and engineering to be 
established in any English-speaking country, is an event 
of peculiar interest and far-reaching importance. 

“ The voice of America in this age is one of exultation. 
If it be assumed that the daily press speaks for our people 
it is not infrequently a voice of boasting. The press is not 
always discriminating in its estimate of the meaning of 
new steps and easily falls into the habit of exaggerating 
the value of a new thing and overestimating its probable 
results. The man in the street believes that we easily lead 
the world in science and in its practical applications, but 
those better informed know that we have strong rivals; 
that, while practice in America in mechanics and the elec¬ 
tric arts compares favorably, as a whole, with that of any 
other country, the discovery of the facts upon which prac¬ 
tice is based has been more often European than American. 
Even in the practical applications of physical science it 
happens not infrequently that we follow and do not lead. 
France led us in the development of the automobile. 


33 



Steam Turbines 
























Thanks to the skill and daring of two young men from 
Ohio, an American aeroplane is now at the front, but Ger¬ 
many and France are showing the way in the construction 
and operation of dirigible balloons; Great Britain leads us, 
at present, in marine construction, and an Italian first 
developed, upon a practical and commercial scale, the 
utilization of etheric waves for transmitting intelligence, 
to the possibilities of which attention was first directed by 
the research of a great German physicist. 

“ The German empire to-day is a vast hive of industry 
organized in a manner of which comparatively few Amer¬ 
icans who have not investigated the subject have anything 
like an adequate conception. In an interesting and very 
valuable paper upon ‘ Engineering Education,’ read before 
the International Engineering Congress in St. Louis in 1904, 
Dr. Robert Fletcher, Director of the Thayer School of Civil 
Engineering, Dartmouth college, said: ‘ Realizing that 
even the most industrious people must have competent 
expert direction and that “ efficient direction of any industry 
to-day demands a large amount of technical knowledge 
which cannot be learned at the bench or in the shop,” the 
government and the people, through trade associations, 
have established hundreds of schools of applied science for 
instruction in all the leading industries of the empire and 
often many schools for the same industry.’ 

” In 1898 Professor J. B. Johnson, M. Am. Soc. C. E., 
reported that ‘ of 248 monotechnic schools in Prussia alone, 
more than half were voluntarily supported by various trades 
as schools for apprentices; in Saxony with i ,000,000 inhabi- 
ants were three monotechnic schools, besides ten schools of 
agriculture and forty of com^merce; in Hesse, schools for 
agriculture and sculpture, nine for artisans, forty-three 
for industries and eighty-two for design. In Baden, schools 
of architecture, industry, commerce, etc.’ 

” German foresight and system in the organization of 
educational facilities not less than the industry and the 
frugalitv of the German people have advanced Germany 
within fifty years from a position of comparative poverty 
and obscurity to a place in the foremost rank of powerful 
and progressive nations. As Dr. Fletcher well says: ‘ It is 
not her army of soldiers which other nations need to fear, 
but her armies of scientifically trained directors of industrial 
enterprises and of highly educated commercial agents.’ 

” While no other nation to-day provides as effectively as 
do the Germans for enlargement of the boundaries of 
science by original research nor for the systematic training 


35 



fiUCTiON Gas Producer. Gas Engines. Refrigerating Plant 
































■of its people in the industrial and commereial use of scien¬ 
tific facts and methods, there is very much that is admirable, 
effective and worthy of our most careful consideration in 
the educational, industrial and commercial practice of 
some of the other great nations. 

“ The ratio of talent and skill to raw material employed 
in productive work is nowhere higher than in France. There 
are still many lessons in the fields of industry and commerce 
that we might learn to advantage by studying British 
achievement. The low countries, Switzerland and Italy, 
particularly northern Italy, are utilizing as never before 
the energy and skill of their people in applying the dis¬ 
co veries of physical science to the needs of modern life, but 
in Germany especially are the results of the physical and 
chemical laboratory evidenced by tremendous advance not 
only in material development, but also in intellectual 
activity. 

“ In 1866 there were in the United States six schools 
which taught engineering. The number to-day exceeds 
100, and within the last decade or two, while the number 
of such schools has continued to increase, a far greater 
relative advance has been made in the endowment and 
facilities of the older established schools. 

“ An act of Congress passed July 2, 1862, made provision 
for the establishment in the several states of colleges of 
agriculture and the mechanic arts, and a number of states, 
from time to time, have extended substantial aid to the 
cause of technical education. But the one striking and 
unparalleled fact which stands in the foreground, when we 
look at the history of technical education in America, is the 
beneficence and public spirit of private citizens who have 
established and endowed so many of these splended insti¬ 
tutions for the training of x\merican youth. 

“ Of these, the school established by Stephen Van Rens¬ 
selaer in 1824 was the first, and it still stands first as meas¬ 
ured by the work of its graduates in the broad fields of 
civil engineering practice. 

“But I shall not attempt to discuss what has been 
accomplished; I prefer to use the time allotted to me to 
suggest to your minds some of the considerations which 
make an occasion like the present important not onl}^ to 
those who are peculiarly interested in the welfare and 
progress of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, but to 
all American engineers and, indeed, to every patriotic 
American. 


37 



Looking Through Hydraulic Laboratory to Steam Laboratory 
























“ While the fact that the Rensselaer Polytechnic Insti¬ 
tute now possesses in the Russell Sage laboratory a plant 
whose potential possibilities in the training of successive 
classes of young engineers are obviously destined to have a 
far-reaching effect upon the commercial and industrial 
development of America is the fact which stands out pre- 
emiinently in the foreground to-day, there are other facts 
which must be sketched into the picture if we are to form 
anything like a correct and adequate conception of the 
significance of this event. 

“ One of these facts has been suggested by what I have 
already said, viz., that the United vStates, in all it has to do 
with science and its practical application, now meets and 
must continue to meet energetic, able and, in some cases, 
highly organized and increasing competition. 

Hitherto the vast extent and great natural wealth of 
the United States, availed of by an energetic and rapidly 
increasing population, under political and social conditions 
which, in a degree almost without precedent, have per¬ 
mitted and even invited ‘ the emergence of the individual,’ 
have resulted in a commercial and industrial development 
which, as measured, for example, by miles of railroad 
constructed, by the value of products manufactured or by 
the quantities of the kindly fruits of the earth produced, has 
no parallel in history. But quantitative measurements are 
not the only tests v/hich should be applied to past achieve¬ 
ment when we attempt to measure our strength for future 
progress. Qualitative analysis here is at least equally 
important. The vast natural resources of a new continent 
suffice for a time to cover up a multitude of sins of omission 
and commission by a people which develops and utilizes 
those resources, but as the primeval forests are cut down or 
burned and the accumulated fertility of the soil exhausted 
by use without renewal, the time approaches when those 
blessed with such a heritage must substitute science, skill 
and thrift for the hand-to-mouth methods of a frontier 
community. 

“ In this process of substitution, beyond question, we 
have made substantial progress. The work of the agri¬ 
cultural bureau of the United States, the efforts and 
influence of the graduates of our agricultural colleges and 
the practical intelligence of our more progressive farmers 
have increased materially the output per acre of American 
farms. 

“ Verv recently a beginning has been made in the appli¬ 
cation of scientific forestry methods to the preservation and 
renewal of our forests. 


39 



Steam Pumps of Hydraulic Laboratory. Switch Board in Distance 
















“ Our mining practice, though still frightfully wasteful 
of life and material, has improved to some extent in recent 
years. 

“ Our railroad engineers, if their work be compared with 
the best of foreign practice, have very much to be proud of 
and comparatively little to explain. 

“ The practice of our iron and steel mills compares 
favorably on the whole with that of our great competitors 
abroad. 

“In the textile industries, while our aggregate output 
is large, we are as yet apparently unable to compete success¬ 
fully in the production of goods of the higher and more 
artistic classes. 

“ Generalization in reference to so comprehensive a 
subject is always hazardous, but I think it may be said 
wdth substantial justice that, broadly speaking, we in 
America have reached a point where scientific methods and 
scientifically trained men are needed as they never have been 
needed before. From now on, industrial and commercial 
progress must depend more upon refinements of practice 
and less upon expansion into new fields and to the attain¬ 
ment of such refinements the knowledge and training, which 
students in this laboratory and in the laboratories of our 
other technical schools will have opportunity to attain, are 
factors fundamental and essential. 

“ Hitherto the construction and equipment of our rail¬ 
roads, the building of bridges, waterworks and docks, the 
erection, equipment, organization and operation of steel 
mills, the construction of buildings for all purposes, the 
development of mines, the design and construction of steam 
engines, dynamos and the manifold mechanisms of applied 
mechanical and electrical science have afforded ample 
sphere for the activities of the graduates of our technical 
schools. Such apparently will be the case for many years 
to come, and yet I would point out here the fact that train¬ 
ing, such as will be imparted in this laboratory pre-eminently 
fits men not only to be mechanical and electrical engineers, 
but also to attack with success the economic and essentially 
scientific problems which arise in almost every department 
of manufacturing industry. Decidedly, it is the mental 
training, the ability to reason accurately from cause to 
effect, the sense of proportion, which count in preliminary 
education, rather than the incidental knowledge of facts 
relating to any particular science or art, and there can be 
no reason to doubt that, if a few hundred young graduates 
of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute should take up such 


41 



Small Wier Flumes and Water Wheels 





































work, for example, as that of manufacturing woolen or 
cotton cloth, the effect of their scientific training would be 
shown inside of ten years by material improvement in 
quality and quantity of output and in the economy of 
production. 

In the electrical field there is constant need of more 
workers and especially of better trained workers. The 
value of manufactured products in the United States 
doubled during the decade from 1895 to 1905. The output 
of our factories producing electrical machinery and appli¬ 
ances practically doubled in five years. This rate possibly 
was abnormal, but there is every reason to believe that, 
for many years to come, the demand for mechanical and 
electrical equipment will continue to increase at a rate 
exceeding the average rate of increase for other manu¬ 
factured products, and consequently the field for trained 
workers in the practical application of mechanical and 
electrical science is an expanding one. But the actual 
field available for graduates of institutions like the Rens¬ 
selaer Polytechnic is, as I have indicated, much wider even 
than would be inferred simply from consideration of those 
spheres of effort w'hich are regarded as peculiarly the 
province of the engineer, owing to the fact that no other 
training so well fits a man for success in the many more or 
less related departments of practical industry. 

“ But beyond the great value of a mechanical and elec¬ 
trical laboratory such as this, as a school for training 
students in engineering courses lies another possible, I may 
even say probable value, viz., the opportunity which it 
affords and the stimulus which it may be expected to impart 
to latent talent in the fascinating and w'onderful field of 
original research. The laboratories of the Ecole Normale, 
where Pasteur learned the A, B, C of chemical science, were 
ill-lighted, badly ventilated and indifferently equipped. 
What would Pasteur have thought had he been provided 
in his student days with facilities such as are here offered? 
Surely it is not too much to hope that, among the many 
young men who are destined to work within these walls, 
some will be found whose preference shall be for pure 
science rather than for its applications and whose patient 
research work in later years will result in further additions 
to the still far from complete basis of scientific knowledge 
upon which present engineering practice rests. 

“ The American Institute of Electrical Engineers, which 
I have the honor to represent upon this occasion, comprises 
in round numbers 600 members and 6,000 associate mem- 


43 



Turbine and Large Flume, Steam and Centrifugal Pumps 










bers. Its ranks are filled with graduates of our engineering 
sehools. Mueh, very much, in the field of practical applica¬ 
tion has been accomplished, but even within the horizon of 
our present knowledge we shall need powerful reinforce¬ 
ments from our engineering schools in the immediate future 
if we are to secure and maintain that relative position in the 
world of progress which the natural resources of our country, 
the energy of our people and the opportunities afforded by 
our institutions demand. And beyond the horizon of our 
present knowledge what infinite possibilities may await 
keen and patient research and inventive genius! The 
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is distinguished among 
our schools of Science and Engineering by the fact that it 
has never attempted to do more than it has subsequently 
proved itself able to accomplish with signal success. All 
who are interested in electrical science must rejoice that 
this conservatively and ably managed institution, which in 
the past has done so much to place the American civil 
engineer in the front rank of progress, is now prepared, under 
exceptionally competent and earnest direction and with 
adequate facilities, to add to the army of trained workers in 
the broad field of electrical engineering. 

“ In behalf of the Institute of Electrical Engineers, I 
extend hearty congratulations to the Rensselaer Polytechnic 
Institute upon the acquisition of these splendid laboratories, 
which are destined beyond doubt to contribute to progress 
in the arts of civilization to an extent which no one at this 
time may attempt to measure.” 

THE RUSSELL SAGE LABORATORAL 

The Russell Sage Laboratory is built of Harvard brick 
with Indiana limestone trimmings. It is 246 feet long and 
80 feet in depth, except the central portion of 50 feet, which 
is 100 feet in depth. The west wing contains the depart¬ 
ment of Mechanical Engineering and the east wing the 
department of Electrieal Engineering. The central portion 
is used by both departments. This portion contains a 
large lecture room capable of seating over 400 people, a 
reference library, a museum and a large drawing room. It 
also contains lockers, wash rooms, janitor’s quarters, and 
the laboratory for the large 600,000 pound machine for 
testing materials of construction. 

Mechanical Engineering. 

The west wing is 100 x 80 feet in plan and five stories in 
height. In it are the laboratories, class rooms, draughting 


45 



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rooms and offices of the department of Mechanical Engineer¬ 
ing. The laboratories occupy the sub-basement, basement 
and the larger part of the first floor of this half of the build¬ 
ing, while the class rooms and lecture rooms occupy portions 
of the first, second and third floors. The draughting rooms 
are in the northwest corner of the second and third floors 
and the offices are arranged on the different floors for 
convenience. Lecture rooms, which may be used as recita¬ 
tion rooms, are found on the second and third floors. 

Topic and Lecture Rooms. — These rooms are intended 
for recitations during which each man in the class has work 
at the blackboard. For this reason as much blackboard 
space as possible is obtained by running a belt of black¬ 
boards around the walls of the room at the proper height. 
The belt is complete, filling all piers or returns at windows. 
This may be seen from the picture of the typical topic room. 
When used for this work the sections which recite contain 
about twenty men and the regular topic rooms are of such 
a size as to seat that number. Larger rooms are used as 
lecture or topic rooms. The smaller topic rooms contain 
plain benches and seat from twenty-four to thirty men, 
while one larger topic room intended for lectures to small 
classes will seat thirty-six. The lecture room on the second 
floor will seat ninet3^-six men and that on the third floor 
will accommodate sixty-four. 

The furniture consists of benches with tablet arms in 
those rooms where lectures may be given and plain benches 
in the topic rooms. The finish of the furniture and wood 
trim throughout the building is of English oak. 

Draughting Rooms. — The draughting room on the second 
floor is intended to accommodate the Senior class and has 
thirty-six drawing tables, each containing two cabinets, one 
for each of the twm men occupying the table and a common 
detail drawer between the two cabinets. Each cabinet 
contains a space sufficient to hold two large drawing boards 
and a T square, a small draw'er for ink bottles and instru¬ 
ments and several shelves for books, papers or drawing 
materials. The cabinets are of oak while the tops are of 
white pine with square edges so that they may be used as 
drawing boards if necessary. The room on the third floor 
is fitted with forty-eight drawing tables and when fully 
occupied these two rooms will accommodate i68 men. 
Each room is provided with a blackboard for instruction 
purposes and a large filing cabinet for the reception of 
drawings. 


47 



Centrifugal Pumps for Higfi Heads. Water Wheels and Charging Compressor 








Laboratories. — The sub-basement floor contains three 
laboratories: the steam laboratory, the hydraulic labora¬ 
tory and the internal combustion engine and refrigeration 
laboratory. These are all finished in painted rough brick. 
There is a wainscotting of dark green while the wall above 
is white. The ceiling is of plaster with smooth white finish. 

Steam Laboratory.^ —The steam laboratory covers 2,800 
sq. ft. of floor space and contains steam engines, turbines, 
an air compressor and a superheater. One end of the 
room is used as a testing floor for the testing of any machines 
sent to the laboratory for that purpose. The steam supply 
and exhaust as well as the condensing water supply and 
discharge are all carried in a tunnel beneath the middle of 
the room. 

The principal engine is an 8 and 18 x 24 Cross Compound 
Corliss Engine, built by the Wm. A. Harris Steam Engine 
Co. This engine is arranged with a reheating receiver and 
the heads of the high pressure cylinder and the heads and 
barrel of the low pressure cylinder are jacketed. The 
cranks are so arranged that the angular position of the pins 
may be changed and the strokes may be altered by changing 
the radius of the crank in selecting other holes in the crank 
discs. In this way the cylinder ratios may be varied from 
117 to 1:3. The clearance is equalized on the ends in these 
changes by fastening filling pieces to the piston. The high 
pressure cylinder is special in that the steam chest is sepa¬ 
rated into two parts by a cross partition so that steam is 
admitted to each through a separate throttle valve. The 
exhaust chest is arranged in the same manner and separate 
exhaust pipes lead from each end to separate condensers. 
In this way when the high pressure cylinder is used alone 
it will be possible to find the amount of steam on each end 
of the cylinder, thus determining how the steam supply 
divides between the two ends, the quality 'at cut off on 
each end and the effect of the piston rod. The steam leak¬ 
age around the piston may be found by cutting off the 
steam supply on one end and determining the condensation 
on that end. 

The two exhaust pipes may discharge together into the 
receiver from which the steam passes into the low pressure 
cylinder or when necessary the high pressure steam may 
be cut off and the low pressure cylinder worked from live 
steam taken through a reducing pressure valve. 

The condensers attached to this engine are Worthington 
surface condensers equipped with wet discharge pumps at 
the bottom of each condenser and a dry air pump common 


49 



Fan Room. Gas Engines. Hot Air Engines 




























to the two condensers. This equipment is designed to give 
a very low vacuum. 

The lo, i6i and io| x lo-inch air compressor built by 
the Ingersoll-Rand Co. is placed next. It is of the two stage 
compression type with two single expansion steam cylinders 
in tandem with the air cylinders which are cross-connected 
through an intercooler. The steam cylinders are equipped 
with Meyer valves and the air cylinders are equipped with 
piston inlet valves of late design. The discharge from the 
compressor is carried into one of two large tanks through a 
safety valve and three-way cock. The discharge from the 
compressor is to be kept at constant pressure as the pres¬ 
sure in the tank increases to the compressor pressure. 
When this is obtained the air is shifted to the other of the 
two tanks and from the pressure, volume and temperature 
of the first tank the amount of free air compressed may be 
determined and then the air in this tank is discharged into 
the room. The steam consumption of the compressor 
engine is determined by means of a non-vacuum condenser 
built by the C. H. Wheeler Co. 

The high speed engines are represented by a 5^ x lo 
Buckeye engine, a x loj x 6^ vertical Cross Compound 
engine built by B. F. Sturtevant, a 7 x 7 McEwan engine, 
and a 6 X 8 Buffalo Forge engine. These engines are all 
of recent construction and each is connected to its own 
condenser. The Buffalo Forge engine is connected to a 
C. H. Wheeler non-vacuum condenser, the McEwan to a 
Platt Iron Works condenser with a combined air and 
circulating pump, the Sturtevant to a C. H. Wheeler con¬ 
denser connected to a Mullen Valveless air pump and the 
Buckeye to a Worthington condenser with a combined air 
and circulating pump. 

The turbine equipment consists of a 10 H. P. DeLaval 
turbine, a 10 H. P. Sturtevant turbine and a 20 H. P. Kerr 
turbine. These turbines are so arranged that any one of 
them ma}^ exhaust into the air, a C. H. Wheeler non-vacuum 
condenser or a Wheeler Manufacturing Co. condenser 
equipped with an Edwards air pump. The steam supply 
may be saturated or it may be taken from a portable 
Foster superheater capable of heating 600 pounds of steam 
per hour to 765® F. 

The testing floor consists of Z bars mounted on concrete 
piers and so fixed that machines of various forms may be 
readily set up. Steam and exhaust piping, compressed 
air and electric power leads are placed near here, so that a 


51 



Corliss Engine for Valve Setting. Water Meter. Testing Tank. Instrument Room 



























supply of various forms of power can be had for testing 
machines of all kinds. 

A four ton Maris Bros, hand crane running the length of 
the room is used in erecting or repair work while a one ton 
Dale portable crane is of service under the gallery. 

The cooling water from the condensers is taken to a 
spraying fountain on the low roof of the boiler house for 
cooling after which it returns to the cistern beneath the 
hydraulic laboratory. 

It is to be noted that different types of surface con¬ 
densers and air pumps are represented in the equipment of 
the laboratory. 

The Hydraulic Laboratory. — The Hydraulic Laboratory 
contains pumps, water wheels, turbines and apparatus for 
determining the losses in the conveyance of water as well 
as for the measurement of large quantities of w^ater. It 
covers 2,500 square feet. The steam pumps are placed 
along the main aisle. A tandem steam duplex pump of 
Worthington make is used for duty tests and to supply 
water under 300 ft. head. It is an 8 x 12 x 7 x 10 outside 
packed plunger pump of the water-works pattern and is 
supplied with a pump governor so that the pressure may 
be controlled at any desired head between 100 and 300 feet. 
The 10X10X12 low pressure duplex tank pump of Fairbanks, 
Morse & Co. will handle 1,000 gallons per minute. These 
pumps are provided with non-vacuum surface condensers 
for the purpose of determining steam consumption. A 
12x6x12 Marsh steam pump is used as an example of 
a simplex pump while a small pulsometer and a Sellers, 
Class N, Injector are used for testing the direct application 
of steam to the raising of water. A Dean triplex pump 
and a Root rotary pump represent the power pumps. These 
are driven by electric motors as is the case with the centrifu¬ 
gal pumps. The motors are controlled from switch boards 
at convenient places. These boards are furnished with 
ammeters for each motor and a common voltmeter so that 
the power taken to drive each machine may be determined. 
There are three centrifugal pumps: a single stage Lawrence 
pump of 1,000 gallons capacity, a two stage Platt pump 
for an 80-foot head and a three stage Worthington pump for 
a 250-foot head. 

A 12-inch Doble water wheel and a 12-inch Pelton wheel 
represent the simpler types of impulse turbines while an 
Escher, Wyss & Co. wheel with a high grade governor 
represents the European development of this type of 
high head wheel. These wheels receive water from the 


53 



Heating and Ventilating Laboratory 






























































Worthington duplex pump or from the high head cen¬ 
trifugal pump after passing the water through a large air 
tank to equalize the pressure. The air tanks are charged 
by a small motor-driven air compressor. A lo-inch 
Leffel turbine is installed over the long flume for turbine 
investigation. This turbine takes its supply from a 25,000 
gallon tank on the floor above under a total head of about 
twenty feet. The discharge from this and the other 
apparatus is cared for by a cistern of 25,000 gallons capacity, 
placed under the floor. Most of the pumps draw from this 
cistern and by properly connecting the pumps 3,000 gallons 
a minute, under a head of 20 feet, is available for testing 
water wheels. 

The discharge from the water wheels, turbines or pumps 
is measured by flumes, of which there are five, or by 
Venturi meters, and provision is made for determining 
quantities by Pitot tubes, calibrated nozzles, floats, current 
meters, and aprons. The long flume is used for channel 
experiments. All flumes are provided with permanent 
measuring tubes for investigations of changes in head and 
velocity along and across channels. The flumes are of 
concrete construction. 

Provision is made for investigations of friction in pipes, 
bends, valves and other obstructions and the determination 
of co-efficients used in hydraulic work. 

The calibration of water meters, and the experimental 
work with the h3^draulic ram and injector, will be performed 
on the basement floor where other space is available for 
this work. 

Internal Combustion Engine and Refrigeration Labora¬ 
tory. — This laboratory covers 1,600 square feet of floor 
space and is equipped with gas, gasoline, alcohol and oil 
engines, hot air engines and an ammonia compressor. The 
machines are arranged in two rows. In one of them are a 
12 H. P. Otto gas engine directly connected to a small 
suction gas producer, a 12 H. P. Fairbanks-Morse engine 
for illuminating gas, gasoline or alcohol, a 2^ H. P. Meitz & 
Weiss kerosene engine, and a 10 H. P. Du Bois engine for 
gasoline or gas, while in the other row are the 3-ton steam- 
driven Frick ammonia compressor, a 6 H. P. Secor oil 
engine of the Marine Engine & Machine Co., a 6 x 8 two- 
cylinder Westinghouse gas engine, a Rider Ericsson hot air 
engine and an Ericsson hot air engine. These may be seen 
in the two illustrations of this room. 

Refrigerating Plant. — This plant contains two receivers 
arranged to weigh the amonia, a double pipe ammonia 


55 







maam 


•ti'auii'a/Ji.' j a'iij-uaiBBBaSw 




aamn 















A Corner of the Oil, Gas and Fuel Laboratory 




















































condenser, a triple pipe brine cooler, two refrigerating 
rooms and a brine tank for ice making. The rooms may 
by cooled by brine or by direct expansion and the}^ are 
separated by a portable partition which may be made of 
different materials for investigations in insulation. All 
coils are arranged to receive pressure gauges and ther¬ 
mometers at inlet and outlet so as to determine the change 
in pressure or temperature in the coil. The rooms are built 
of concrete and Nonpareil compressed cork. It is arranged 
for great insulating capacity. 

The basement floor contains the fan room, the valve 
setting laboratory, the space for water meter testing, the 
transmission laboratory, the generating plant, the space 
for testing injectors and the hydraulic ram as well as the 
repair shop for the department. 

The fan room, of 700 square feet, contains the following 
fans and blowers: a two stage blower, a No. 6 pressure 
blow’er and a 30-inch volume blower made by the Buffalo 
Forge Company, a 34-inch Sirroco blower, a 30-inch Sturte- 
vant ventilating fan and a No ^ Root blower. These are 
all driven by motors so arranged that the power input may 
be determined. The space reserved for valve setting con¬ 
tains 500 square feet and is equipped with a Murray Corliss 
engine and a vSturtevant D slide valve engine. These are 
arranged for valve setting by measurement; and by the 
indicator in which case compressed air is employed. 

The water meter testing is done b}^ actually measuring 
the discharge of water from small meters. A low tank, 
containing the weighing tank and scales, is placed next to 
the Murray engine for this purpose. 

The transmission laboratory is equipped with apparatus 
for testing belt and rope transmission as well as the ef¬ 
ficiency of various forms of gearing. It has 800 square feet 
of floor space. 

The generating plant consists of a motor generator built 
for the transformation of A. C. current into direct current 
for use in the variable speed motors. The switch-board 
panels at this point control the various circuits for the 
west half of the building. 

The repair shop is used for the apparatus installed or 
for the construction of new apparatus. It is equipped 
with lathe, shaper and milling machine. 

Instrument Rooms. — Those instruments, not attached to 
the apparatus on the sub-basement and basement floors, are 
kept in the small instrument rooms shown on these floors 
in the picture of the Steam Laboratory. These rooms are 



Junior Drawing Room 































equipped with shelves, drawers and lockers for the reception 
of instruments and these are divided so that all the 
apparatus for one machine is found together. 

Small Laboratories. — About 3,500 square feet of floor 
space is divided into small laboratories. One of these is 
devoted to hoisting apparatus; another to heating and 
ventilation; another to tachometers, anemometers and 
such apparatus; another to oil, gases and fuels; one to 
gauges, indicators and thermometers; one to standards, 
and two are intended to be used for special work. 

The hoisting room contains various commercial hoists 
and jacks so arranged that the efficiencies may be deter¬ 
mined and a study made of their construction and 
operation. 

The heating and ventilating laboratory is equipped with 
various forms of radiators for direct heating and a pipe coil 
and fan blower for a study of indirect methods of heating. 
The apparatus is so arranged that the heat used in the 
various coils or radiators may be determined simply and 
accurately. The power used for ventilation is determined 
from the motor by means of ammeters. For testing pipe 
covering, a special arrangement of pipes and drip pots is 
employed. 

The laboratory for the testing of anemometers and tacho¬ 
meters is equipped with special apparatus for this purpose, 
each machine being driven by a variable speed motor. By 
means of electro magnets the recording parts of the appara¬ 
tus are thrown into gear simultaneously thus giving 
accurate readings. 

The oil, gas and fuel room is equipped with an Olsen oil 
testing machine; chill point and flash point apparatus of 
new make; viscosimeters; balances; the Elliot, Hempel 
and Orsat forms of gas apparatus, gas meters. Junker 
calorimeter for gas and oil; Mahler Bomb calorimeter; 
Parr Coal calorimeter; apparatus for coal analysis; drying 
ovens and other apparatus for the treatment of oils, gases 
and fuels. 

The gauge, indicator and thermometer room is equipped 
with a manifold for testing indicators, a weight guage 
tester, a mercury vacuum tester, hypsometers, and ice 
pails as well as a set of thermometer wells for the determina¬ 
tion of errors in thermometers at high temperatures. 

The standard room contains the higher grade instruments 
for use in the laboratories or for comparison. A Wanner 
Pyrometer, two thermo couples with a recording voltmeter 
and a simple voltmeter, a Siemens water pyrometer and 


59 



A Tvpical Recitation Room 










several high grade thermometers serve to measure tempera¬ 
ture while several Beckman thermometers are to be used 
to measure small changes in temperature. For measure¬ 
ment of length two standard meters, a comparator and a 
cathetometer are used. A high grade barometer, a stand¬ 
ard pound, two high grade scales, and a high grade clock 
are employed for accurate work or for the calibration of 
other instruments. The room contains voltmeters, ammeters 
recording drums, indicators, a manograph, planimeters, 
stop watches, laboratory stands, hydrometers, hygrometers, 
spherometers and other apparatus for careful work. 

The two rooms for special work are equipped with labora¬ 
tory tables, drawing board, running water, gas and electric 
current of A. C. and D. C. form. 

Electrical Engineering. 

The east wing is loo feet by 8o feet in plan and four 
stories in height. The basement of this wing contains the 
generating plant, dynamo laboratory, storage battery and 
transformer rooms, the electro chemical laboratory, rooms 
for blue printing and photographic work and the instru¬ 
ment shop. 

Electrical Laboratory. — The Electrical Laboratory 
obtains both direct and alternating current from the mains 
of the Troy Electric Light Company, a total of 150 kilo¬ 
watts being available from this source. The alternating 
current is supplied at 2,400 volts, two phase, 40 cycles and 
is transformed to 220 volts by six subway type trans¬ 
formers. The transformers are located in a room adjoining 
the generating plant and are controlled from the main 
switchboard by remote control switches with overload 
relays and a constant voltage is maintained by means of 
induction regulators. The direct current is supplied at 
550 volts. 

Generator Plant. — The generator plant is equipped 
with two 25 K. W. no volt direct connected generators, 
one of which is driven by a cross compound marine 
type engine and the other by a Curtis steam turbine. 
In addition to these generators there are two 25 K. W. 
synchronous motor driven no volt generators for supply¬ 
ing direct current, two 25 K. W. motor generator sets 
supplying 3 phase current, one at 60 cycles and the 
other at 25 cycles, a 15 K. W. induction motor driven 
exciter set with Tirrill regulator, a 25 K. W. three unit set 
consisting of an induction motor connected to two low 
voltage D. C. generators supplying for electrolytic and 


61 



General View of the Electrical Engineering Laboratory 





















standardization purposes 3,000 amperes at 8 volts or 1,500 
amperes at 16 volts, and a 30 ampere mercury arc rectifier. 

The main switchboard for the control of all circuits in 
the vSage Laboratory and the other buildings of the Insti¬ 
tute is located in the generator room. The equpiment of 
this room includes a two ton, three motor electric travel¬ 
ing crane with floor control. 

Battery Room. — The battery room is equipped with 66 
cells, each of 120 ampere hours’ capacity and four cells, 
each of 4,000 ampere hours’ capacity. The cells have 
chloride negatives and Manchester type positives. The 
battery is especially useful in connection with photometric 
work and the standardization of instruments. 

Electro-Chemistry. — Three rooms are devoted to the 
work in electro-chemistry. 

The equipment includes a 50 K. W. Heroult furnace 
and a 10 K. W. induction furnace of the Colby-Kjellin 
type for experimental work in the refining of steel 
and the manufacture of high melting alloys, an ex¬ 
perimental Arsem furnace for research work in vacuum 
and an Acheson furnace with water cooled electrodes 
for the manufacture of graphite, titanium carbide, etc. 
The generating plant is equipped to supply any of the 
standard forms of electrical energy to illustrate the vari¬ 
ous technical processes for the reduction of metals such 
as copper, aluminum, lead, by electro-chemical means. 
All facilities in the nature of carbon and graphite electrodes 
and refractory material such as fireclay, silica, magnesia, 
alumina, and chromate brick are at hand to aid in the 
building of furnaces for manufacturing various electro¬ 
chemical products such as the ferro-alloys and calcium 
carbide. 

Dynamo Room. — The dynamo room is devoted to the 
testing of generators and motors. The floor construction 
is such that machines can be quickly set up and adjusted; 
a two-ton hand power crane is available. The machines 
are of a great variety and include one Edison 3 K. W. no 
volt D. C. generator, one Western Electric 5 K. W. D. C. 
generator, two 6 K. W. Allis Chalmers D. C. generators, one 
Crocker Wheeler dynamotor for electrolytic work, one 
General Electric 7.5 K. W. 3 phase alternator, one General 
Electric 7.5 K. W. 2 phase alternator with motor driven 
exciter, and two 10 K. W. Westinghouse 550 volt rotary 
converters. The motors include, in addition to several 
small motors, an electric railway motor testing set consisting 


63 



Main Switch Board. Generator Sets. Motor Generators and Frequency Changers 




























of two 25 H. P. 550 volt motors mounted on an interurban 
truck, with friction wheels, fly wheels, water brakes and 
traction dynamometer, air and hand brakes and a full 
equipment of instruments for a complete series of tests; 
two Westinghouse 10 H. P. type K induction motors, one 
General Electric 7.5 H. P. type L induction motor, one 
General Electric 3 H. P. single phase induction motor, one 
Lincoln 7.5 H. P. variable speed motor, one Electrodynamic 
Company’s interpole variable speed motor, one Westing- 
house 7.5 H. P. no volt compound wound motor, one 
General Electric 5 H. P. series motor. 

The laboratory is equipped with all the necessar}^ volt¬ 
meters, ammeters, wattmeters, frequency indicators, tacho¬ 
meters, Prony brakes, etc., for carrying on tests on all the 
machines at the same time. 

Instrument Shop. — The instrument shop is used for the 
repair and construction of apparatus. The equipment 
includes a 14-inch Hendey lathe, a 15-inch Potter and John¬ 
son shaper, a Dwight slate sensitive drill, a Northern Electric 
buffer, a gas-forge and one ton overhead traveling crane. 
All the tools are motor-driven. 

Blue Print Room. — The blue print room is arranged for 
blue printing by electric light. 

First Floor Rooms. — The first floor of the east wing con¬ 
tains two lecture rooms, two topic recitation rooms and 
the executive offices of the Department of Electrical 
Engineering. 

Electrical Measurements. — The second floor contains 
the laboratory for electrical measurements, a smaller 
laboratory for studying the phenomena of high tension and 
alternating currents, a room for the study of wave forms 
and other alternating current phenomena, including phase 
relations, field discharge, resonance and initial conditions 
in circuits and cables, and a large room for the calibration, 
standardization and testing of instruments, apparatus and 
materials used in Electrical Engineering. Beside these 
there are two rooms devoted to research work. The 
laboratories are equipped with the necessary ballistic and 
aperiodic galvanometers, bridges, standard cells, conden¬ 
sers, resistance coils, induction coils, ammeters, voltmeters, 
wattmeters, etc., so that all the determinations included in 
a course can be undertaken at the same time. 

The equipment includes various types of W^heatstone 
bridges, galvanometers, condensers, a complete set of 
Reichsanstalt standard resistances, a Du Bois magnetic 


65 



Generators and Motors 































balance, conductivity bridges, cable testing sets, potenti¬ 
ometers, and standards of self-induction. 

High Tension Room.— The equipment of the high tension 
room comprises two General Electric 5 K. W. 2,200 volt 
static transformers, one General Electric constant current 
floating coil transformer, with equipment of lamps, two 
Westinghouse i K. W. 2,200 volt static transformers and 
tw^o Westinghouse 10 K. W. 10,000 volt transformers. The 
equipment also includes induction coils and other neces¬ 
sary apparatus for experiments in wireless telegraphy and 
x-rays. 

Physical Laboratory. — On the third floor is found the 
large laboratory devoted to general physics, heat and sound, 
while adjoining is the room devoted to the study of light. 
This room is so connected to the adjoining rooms, devoted 
to photometric measurements and electric design, that a 
photometer bench 140 feet long can be obtained for the 
measurement of powerful light sources. This floor also 
contains a room for physical research and a large drawing 
room for electric design. 

The laboratory equipment includes a cathetometer, 
dividing engine, astronomical clock, chronograph, standard 
barometers, five Becker and two Sartorius balances, special 
apparatus for measuring modulus of elasticity, modulus 
of torsion, and co-efficient of expansion, Barus calorimeter, 
Ghatelier pyrometer, Hilger spectrometer; Zeiss spectro¬ 
meter, Rowland plane and concave gratings, Schmidt and 
Haensch polariscopes, Zeiss microscope, Abbe refracto- 
rrieter, and Michelson interferometer; 

Photometer Rooms. —The photometer rooms are equipped 
with Reichsanstalt photometers and have all the necessary 
attachments for standardizing and measuring mean hori¬ 
zontal or mean spherical candle powder of arc and incan¬ 
descent electric lights and other light sources. On each 
floor there is a room for the storage of apparatus. These 
rooms are connected with an electric elevator, greatly facili¬ 
tating the transfer of apparatus. 

Object of Instruction. — The studies of the course in 
electrical engineering are designed to secure to all the 
graduates a professional preparation at once thorough and 
practical for the following specialties in engineering practice: 

The design, operation, testing and applications of direct 
and alternating current machines including generators, 
motors, frequency changers, rotary converters, transform¬ 
ers, switchboards and other appliances; the design, con- 


67 



Generators and Motors 



































struction, equipment and operation of central power plants 
including foundations, buildings, electrical and steam or 
hydraulic equipment and complete tests of all classes of 
power house machinery; hydraulic power developments; 
the design and construction of underground and overhead 
systems for the transmission of electrical energy and its 
distribution for light, heat and power purposes; electric 
railway systems including their layout, roadbed, track 
and line construction, car eqiupments and signal systems; 
the application of arc and incandescent lamps to interior 
and street lighting, including the design of interior lighting 
systems; telephone and telegraph systems, including switch¬ 
board and line construction; storage batteries; the applica¬ 
tion of electricity to chemical processes; the selection and 
tests of the various materials used in electrical engineering; 
the preparation of specifications, bills of material and con¬ 
tracts ; the operation of electric light and traction companies, 
including the determination of operating costs and the 
establishment of rates and schedules. 

COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS. 

Address to the class of 1909, at Commencement, June 16, 
1909, by Mr. Onward Bates; 

“ Mr. President, Gentlemen of the Board of Trus¬ 
tees AND OF THE FACULTY, LaDIES AND GENTLEMEN, 
Gentlemen of the Class of 1909.— The honor of deliver¬ 
ing the commencement address this year might, with pro¬ 
priety, have been reserved for a Rensselaer graduate. It 
was with mixed feelings that I considered the invitation 
to address you. I felt it should be tendered to one who is 
more of a scholar and that I was not competent to do jus¬ 
tice to the occasion, but I concluded I would place the 
responsibility for the selection with your president. I 
reflected that perhaps his judgment was correct in choos¬ 
ing a man whose only claims for recognition are that he 
has performed the ordinary service of a w'orking lifetime, 
and whose experience should qualify him to say something 
to the class of 1909 which wdll help them in the experiences 
that are before them. It is particularly gratifying to me 
that, having endeavored to correct a deficiency of education 
by hard, practical work, I am thought to be worthy of this 
honor and that I am thus recognized b}^ the one great 
sehool of engineering which holds in my mind the first rank. 
In addressing you as a practical engineer and basing my 
remarks upon practice, much of w^hat I have to say will be 


69 





Lecture Room, Physics and Eeectricae Engineering 






my own conclusions, drawn from individual experience, 
and I will therefore use the personal pronoun and speak to 
you as man to man, without attempting the formalities of 
a literary address. Personal testimony is the most effect¬ 
ive, and if I talk too much of myself it is only to interest 
you and to emphasize the thoughts I wish to convey. 

“ First of all, let me say something of my experience 
with the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to confirm your 
faith and to influence all present and future students who 
hear this experience to have a proper respect for the curric¬ 
ulum of the Institute. As a boy I learned the trade of 
pattern-making, and then was employed for about three 
years on the St. Charles and St. Louis bridges, after which 
I came to Troy, by the advice of my friend and professional 
father, the late distinguished engineer, C. Shaler Smith. 
I make this digression and bring in the name of Colonel 
Smith by way of testimony to the reputation of Rensselaer 
Polytechnic. He, in common with many other eminent 
engineers who had not the advantage of such a course of 
instruction as was offered by Rensselaer, was numbered 
among its supporters, and selected it as the best place for 
his young friends to learn the theory of the profession. 

“ Upon my arrival at Troy I went to see Professor 
Drowne, at that time the Director of the Institute, and told 
him I wished to study for two years, taking a special course. 
Professor Drowne reasoned with me and urged me to enter 
as a regular student for the whole course, but I was stub¬ 
born and insisted I would take a special course or none at 
Troy, and I was reluctantly permitted to enter as a special 
student. I had been at work, had drawn salaries and to 
some extent been recognized as a man among men, and it 
seemed to me that life was too short for me to spend four 
years of it as a student. I was in my twenty-second year 
and had the civil privileges of manhood and could not make 
up my mind to devote four years solely to what I thought 
was non-productive work. Herein is the justification of 
this personal narrative. In my youthful conceit I set my 
opinion against that of older and wiser heads who knew 
what I did not, the value of preparation. I frequently met 
Professor Drowne, and he tried to show me the truth of 
the matter, but I held to my opinion and made the greatest 
professional error of my life. 

“ I entered Rensselaer in 1871, with the class of ’75 and 
closed my R. P. I. career in June, ’73, thirty-six years ago. 
Gentlemen, I can scarcely realize that I am talking to men 
who were not even to be considered at that time. What 


71 



Electrical Measurements 



































an old man your honored President must be, for he was a 
classmate of mine. I trust you give him the reverence due 
to his age. Only two years for me at Troy, with happy 
memories attached to them, but for more than thirty years 
with regrets that I am not a real Troy man. I miss my 
place in the R. P. I. family; I miss the right to say that I 
am a civil engineer because I hold the R. P. I. degree; and, 
most of all, I have continuously missed the engineers’ 
equipment of scientific training which Rensselaer gives and 
guarantees by her degree. Ever since I left Troy I have 
been handicapped by the loss of half the course of study. 
I have burned the midnight oil and, as a student and reader 
have tried to make up for that loss with only partial success. 
I am devoted to the profession, and yet I constantly face 
the restriction of qualifications which is the result of refus¬ 
ing to take Professor Drowne’s advice. I have only the 
consolation that I have done what I could to correct this 
error of youthful inexperience, and am willing to confess 
this weakness for the benefit of those who must consider 
the question of education. 

“ I say to all young men who have the privilege of choos¬ 
ing a university course, and particularly to those who enter 
the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, to be wise in adopting 
the advice of others, gained by experience, and to accept 
the whole curriculum. Do not be deceived with the idea 
that it is a loss of time. You do not deserve to be an en¬ 
gineer if it is not your aim to end at the top of the profession, 
and you may be assured that nothing contributes so much 
to progress as a proper equipment for the journey. 

“ Gentlemen, I envy you the opportunities you have en¬ 
joyed, and trust that you have made good use of them. This 
day closes the course of your instruction at Troy. You 
will no longer have the corps of able and devoted professors 
and instructors to explain and lead your minds into the 
knowledge of the Science of Engineering. They have 
endowed you with this knowledge which in future will be 
your stock in trade, and they send you out to take ^mur 
places among men to do men’s work, to make the world 
better and by your work and lives to maintain the honor 
and renown of your Alma Mater. You have had excep¬ 
tional opportunities in the way of preparation for the en¬ 
gineers’ work. You have the inspiration of the work of 
previous graduates who have made the name of Rensselaer 
famous, causing the letters ‘ R. P. I.’ to be magical ones in 
the engineering world. Consider now what is expected of 
you. In taking the R. P. I. degree you have accepted an 


73 



Measurements in Light 



































office with a duty attached to it. This degree confers a 
trust to which you must needs be faithful, and you can not 
escape it. Your eertificate from R. P. I. weds you to the 
engineers’ profession and lays on you the requirement of 
serviee to the world which gives you, through your Alma 
Mater, the qualifications and commission for that service. 

“ But do not be led astray by the events of this day. 
Your degree does not make you an engineer. It only eerti- 
fies that you have an engineering education and are now 
prepared to learn the practice of the profession. The en¬ 
gineer is the product of practice. His eollege education is 
his kit of tools to be used in his practice. He is not like a 
merchant who buys and sells, for he is a creator, a builder 
of actual visible things. Neither is he like a workman who 
learns how to make particular things and continues to make 
similar ones. The engineer makes things which are differ¬ 
ent from each other, and as he grows he makes more and 
greater things than before. He has aequired his tools at 
college, and in practice he learns how to handle these tools 
and to use them in his creations. With increasing skill in 
handling tools he must increase his kit both in number and 
in quality. The moral of this is that he must always be a 
student as well as a practical worker, and that his training 
in college is only the first stage of his professional edueation. 
A short time ago an engineer, who stands second to none, 
was showing me a great engineering work, and my enthusi¬ 
asm over what had been accomplished led me to exclaim: 
‘ If an engineer could only practice his profession a thousand 
years he might reach some stage of proficiency in itwhen 
my friend immediately replied: ‘ Yes, and if he did not 
learn a great deal in the last year he could not consider him¬ 
self an engineer.’ Another eminent engineer recently 
wrote me regarding a man whose early life was very prom¬ 
ising and who disappointed his friends in later life, that ‘ he 
should, and I believe could, have reached the very first 
rank of his profession, but, like so many others whom we 
know, he did not keep up after he left college the habit of 
incessant hard study and application necessary to insure 
success in the profession.’ 

“ These quotations are given to show that engineers who 
are regarded as leaders in the profession regard themselves 
as only beginning to acquire the knowledge of it. Such is 
the beauty of the profession; it is inexhaustible, and, to one 
with a true engineering spirit, there are always remaining 
achievements which are yet to be accomplished. To be 
successful an engineer requires the possession of such a 


75 



Photometric Rooms, Showing Long Photometer Track 




























spirit, for if his success is measured solely by its return in 
money or popular esteem, he will be disappointed. Even 
an R. P. 1. graduate can not expect to begin at the top, 
and in all probability must start at the bottom in the prac¬ 
tice of the profession. This is as it should be, in order that 
he may have the enjoyment of continued progress. Begin¬ 
ners in practiee are employed for salaries. This can scarcely 
be otherwise, for they get their training in the early part 
of their praetical life under the direction of more experienced 
engineers. The majority of engineers are salaried men; 
even the high grade of chief engineers are employed for 
salaries. Independent practice, especially that of consult¬ 
ing engineers, properly belongs to those who have, by long 
experience, qualified as advisers. It is to be regretted 
that men who are not qualified sometimes establish them¬ 
selves as eonsulting engineers, but there is no law to prevent 
this and an engineer is fairly well protected by his reputa¬ 
tion for aetual performances. No pity need be wasted on 
clients who employ incompetent engineers without first 
ascertaining their reputation. 

“ If I were to attempt the division of an engineer’s years 
under existing conditions I might say that the first twenty- 
five years should be devoted to preliminary education, the 
next fifteen years to practical education, the next ten years 
to remunerative practice and the next ten years to advisory 
work. This w'ould give him sixty years and the years after 
that could be devoted to study and repose, with sage advice 
when required for important matters, and to the encour¬ 
agement of those coming on after his time. Thus all 
through his life he will have the enjoyment of acquiring 
knowledge and of making practical application of it. Per¬ 
haps this will seem too slow for you, or maybe you wish 
to get rich and enjoy spending money. Well, if your 
desires lie in that direction you may question whether 
engineering is your vocation, for there are surer and quicker 
ways of making money than in the practice of engineering 
and it may be admitted at the start that the profession is a 
poorly paid one and that its rewards lie more in its accom¬ 
plishments than in its pecuniary returns. 

“ Let it be granted that you start at the bottom, working 
for a small salary, and under orders from others. This is 
right, but it is not right for these conditions to continue any 
great length of time or the engineering principle of progress 
is defeated. The question is how to make this progress. 
Let us consider what you should do. Do the work laid out 
for you faithfully and do it well. Do not limit yourself to 


77 



Electrical Design Drawing Room 



























simply what is required of you. Always do more than is 
expected of you. Show yourself capable of doing better 
work than that allotted to you. Mark my words, that the 
man who will do these things will get better work and 
better pay and will progress and have others following him, 
whose work he will supervise. At this point in your educa¬ 
tion you will undertake new courses of study in the school 
of practical experience. Everything which you see done, 
and especially those things you do yourself or have done 
under your direction with responsibility for results, will 
have lessons for you to learn. This course of study is not 
limited by years, for it will never be completed. Remem¬ 
ber that every stick and stone has its lesson, that every 
movement is right or wrong, that every man has some 
knowledge and skill you do not possess and that every 
occasion is open to you for the acquirement of knowledge 
and improvement in its application. Do not fear to show 
your ignorance nor to avail yourself of the knowledge of 
others. You can ask questions of the man with the pick 
and shovel without sacrifice of dignity or loss of authority. 
The test of an engineer is that ‘ he shall be qualified to 
design as well as to direct engineering works.’ You can 
not direct engineering works unless you know how the work 
should be done, and you require this same knowledge to be 
a competent designer. It is probable that men who do the 
work under your design and direction will understand 
better than you do how it should be done. The proposition 
is a simple one: you must learn what they know and use 
that knowledge both in designing and directing. Some 
engineers who have reached distinction in special lines have 
made it a habit to consult contractors and workmen respect¬ 
ing the facility of execution and the ultimate value of de¬ 
signs, and have introduced their suggestions into the work¬ 
ing plans before signing them as complete. These same 
engineers would go farther and change their designs after 
they were adopted if it was shown to them that such changes 
were desirable. No man loses prestige by accepting good 
advice and giving credit where it belongs, though he may 
easily do so by stealing the ideas of others and palming 
them off as his own. In the one case he will be credited 
with the possession of good judgment and in the other case 
he will surely be found out and will not even get as much 
credit as he deserves. It will be of no use for him to claim 
credit which is not due him, for though he might deceive 
the public he can not hoodwink his brethren. It is in the 
nature of the profession to search for truth and to judge 


79 







The 600,000 Pound Testing Machine 




























































from facts, and we form our estimate of a man from what 
he is, what he has done and what he can do. The right 
thing is to forget self and put your whole mind into your 
work without discounting the credit you may get for doing 
it. 

“ Engineering knowledge is acquired step by step. What 
one engineer successfully performs is the foundation for a 
succeeding engineer to build upon. Observe what other 
engineers have done and are doing, and begin where they 
leave off. Independent thought and action is desirable 
when it is in advance of what has already been accomplished 
and it is wasted when it follows in the rear of what has been 
done by others. 

“ The engineer in his work has use for all of his faculties. 
Each of his senses comes into action in enlightening his mind, 
which analyzes and determines the evidence for the solu¬ 
tion of his problems. In your classrooms, shops and labora¬ 
tories you have learned to what use the senses may be 
applied. Seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling and tasting — 
all have a part in your education, sometimes a disagreeable 
part; for instance, you may have to tackle some foul-smell¬ 
ing job where your nose will be offended. It is necessary 
to discriminate in the use of the senses. This is illustrated 
in a case where an engineerwas sent to examine a timber 
structure. He took accurate measurements of the struc¬ 
ture and made a correct drawing of it, but when he was 
asked if the timber was pine or oak he said he did not know, 
that he felt it and it felt very hard. Obviously, the sense 
of seeing would, in that instance, be more serviceable than 
that of feeling. I wish to emphasize the importance of see¬ 
ing, observing and remembering, and for this purpose will 
draw the moral from my own experience. After being 
employed for some years in shops and on particular bridges, 
I was called to take charge of all structures on a railway 
system with more than 6,000 miles of lines. It was my 
duty to pass on questions of maintenance, changes, renewals 
and improvements for some thousands of bridges and cul¬ 
verts, with structures of every kind, at more than thirteen 
hundred stations. It was essential that I should be in¬ 
formed of the condition of each of these structures, and 
my first desire was to see them all. If I could cover 200 
miles a day on an inspection trip, it would take more than 
thirty days to go over the road. One of the first inspection 
trips consumed ten days, during which I used my eyes and 
my note book. I found in trying to remember what I had 
seen in those ten days that my head was in a complete jum- 


81 



Class of 1909 with some of the Faculty 














ble, and for the first time I became aware that my education 
as an observer had been neglected. I felt this so keenly 
that I made an earnest and continued effort to acquire the 
habit of seeing and remembering, and, although I could not 
entirely overcome my previous neglect, I was able in the 
course of years to perceive a great improvement in this 
respect. My advice to you is that you cultivate this habit 
from the beginning of your practical work and continue it 
through life. This will give a fund of experience, worth 
having for your own satisfaction, and of money value to 
you as a consulting engineer. 

“ In addition to the five senses already mentioned, there 
is a sixth sense, the value of which is inestimable and which 
is indispensable for the equipment of a complete engineer. 
You, of course, understand that I refer to common sense. 
This sense teaches you to weigh and place the correct value 
on all that you learn through the other five senses. May 
I call your attention to two frequent errors for which com¬ 
mon sense is the remedy? One of these is the popular fal¬ 
lacy that knowledge is acquired by talking, and that speech 
is one of the senses, whereas common sense informs us that 
speech is frequently nonsense, and that at best it only im¬ 
parts knowledge to others who appropriate it through the 
sense of hearing. The other error is the tendency to accept 
statements as facts, simply because they proceed frorn cer¬ 
tain sources. Common sense teaches one to discriminate 
in the study of information, and to judge between appar¬ 
ently conflicting statements of facts. It is not uncommon 
for an engineer, especially if he is fresh from the university, 
to place too great reliance on the accuracy of mathematical 
processes and misapply them in application. I have known 
an able man to risk his reputation in the defense of mathe¬ 
matical conclusions, based on assumptions which common 
sense should have informed him were incorrect. Another 
man of extended experience has limited his ability by an 
undue reverence for printed matter. A statement of a 
writer in the Engineering News, or the American Society 
transactions, was of more value to him than the evidence 
of practical men, supported by his own observations. Com¬ 
mon sense would suggest that perhaps the writer’s opinion 
on the subject in question was not founded on experience, 
and that it was an individual opinion for which his pub¬ 
lisher assumed no responsibility. 

“ Another subject of study has been much neglected in 
our profession. That is the study of human nature. If 
I may be permitted to criticise professors and practicing 


83 













engineers, I will say their weak side is their lack of the 
knowledge of human nature. They seem to know more of, 
and attach more importance to, wood nature, and steel 
nature, and stone and cement nature than to human nature; 
and are at a disadvantage in dealing with their employers 
and employees, and others with whom they have business 
or diplomatic relations. This is particularly unfortunate 
with engineers, as it interferes with their accomplishments 
and with their remuneration. To employers belong re¬ 
spectful service, but an engineer need never sacrifice his con¬ 
victions in that service, nor should he fail to influence and 
instruct his superiors within the limits of their relationship. 
If he thinks he has ground for reasonable criticism, with 
suggestions for improvement, in any matters for which he 
is held wholly or partially responsible, he should criticise 
and suggest. He may do this in a perfectly modest and 
unobtrusive manner, if it is done with the sole purpose of 
instiling better results. Any right-minded employer or 
superior officer should welcome suggestions for the better¬ 
ment of the service by promoting efficiency or through a 
saving in time or cost, and while it is not suggested that you 
should be unduly forward in such matters, it is really your 
duty to lose no opportunity in promoting the good of the 
work with which you are connected. Should your employer 
or superior take offense in such a case, the fault is theirs 
and not yours. Be contented, but always looking for im¬ 
provement in your position. Men are made by having 
opportunities and using them. You can gc one step farther 
and make these opportunities. Be bold, and assume obli¬ 
gations when you can assure yourself that you are able to 
meet them, but do not be rash in assuming to do what you 
cannot reasonably expect to achieve. 

“ With regard to all men, and especially to those whom 
you outrank, remember that all are entitled to respect until 
they have shown themselves unworthy of it; that in some 
ways all men are equal; and that by recognizing and giving 
every man his rights you will always obtain the best results. 
We hear a common expression regarding someone, that 
‘ he knows how to handle men.’ This is one of the chief 
elements of success, whether you are using their scientific 
knowledge, their business capacity or their physical strength 
and the engineer who can not get the best out of the men of 
every degree wffio are subordinate to him, will not be able 
to secure the results which he owes to his employers and to 
himself. One of the most frequent examples of the weakness 
of engineers in dealing with men is found in their relations 


85 



o 

M 

Ov 

M 

o 

(n 

(f) 

< 

a 









with contractors. It is common for engineering work to be 
done by eontract under the supervision of engineers, and 
the eontrol of the work and settlement of accounts is a 
fruitful source of trouble to the engineer. In the first place 
engineering contraets are nearly always wholly one-sided, 
being drawn by the engineer or his employer, and reserving 
all rights and privileges that are possible for their side, 
while giving the eontractor as few as possible. It is proper 
enough that the engineer should be the one to decide points 
of dispute with the eontractor, and this places with him 
an extra responsibility, making him both an interested 
party and a judge of questions in dispute. It takes a high- 
grade man to meet such a situation with justice and to 
secure the harmonious co-operation of the contractor, 
which is necessary to good results for both parties. It is 
here where it becomes evident that the engineer should be 
a judge of human nature, knowing how to deal with men, 
and that he should be endowed with common sense, tact 
and justice, and with a conciliatory spirit. There is much 
unnecessary friction betw^een engineers and contractors, 
and I think this oftener happens with young engineers than 
with older ones. Young engineers are apt to lay too mueh 
stress on the eontract clauses, giving them praetically 
unlimited power over the contractor, and to become arbi¬ 
trary in dealing with him. The safe rule is to look at both 
sides of the question and then do what is right. As his 
judgment matures with age, he becomes more eonsiderate. 
It is a good thing for an engineer to have some experience 
as a contractor, or in the service of one, for it gives him a 
better grasp of the rights of both sides in a controversy. 
It is also w^ell to study the work from a eontractor’s stand¬ 
point, to get correct ideas of cost, and to learn how to 
handle men. The recent progress of engineering construc¬ 
tion has made such difficult problems for the contractor 
that his class is best recruited from the ranks of engineers. 
The engineer’s education, supplemented by business 
knowledge, and the ability to handle men, makes the ideal 
contractor. For this reason the contractor’s occupation 
offers an attractive field for engineers,' and it is becoming 
common to find them engaged in it. AYith the great works 
carried on in these da3^s, it is frequently the ease that as 
much engineering talent is required in eonstruction as in 
the making of plans. In such cases the engineer shares in 
the financial risk, and if successful his reward is greater 
than when employed under a salary. The old idea that 
engineers are saints and contractors sinners is going out of 


87 



Class of ign 























fashion. The men are the same under either title, and 
engineers become contractors without loss of self-respect, 
and without losing their rank as engineers. In any case 
you should study human nature, for you require the knowl¬ 
edge of it in dealing with your superiors, your equals and 
your inferiors. 

“The every-day quality of good judgment is of more 
value than all else in dealing with men, materials and 
processes; and professional knowledge, supported by this 
quality, should make an engineer the highest type of man¬ 
hood. 

“ It is a great thing to be a successful engineer and to do 
one’s share of engineering work, but we must guard against 
being too much interested in ourselves. The engineer’s 
occupation is more or less a solitary one, with his mind so 
fixed on doing his own work that he is liable to forget the 
relations he should maintain with his fellowmen, and his 
duties to society. It suits very well, with my previous 
advice about studying human nature, to tell you to cultivate 
the society of others, to remember that you have duties to 
perform as a citizen, and that your profession does not 
relieve you from the duty of making others happy through 
social intercourse. You are also charged with a duty to 
the profession, to contribute in every way you can to its 
advancement, and to promote the welfare of its members. 
As you have an opportunity, it will be good for you to have 
membership in the local and national engineering societies. 
You will reap advantages from this membership, and it 
will afford you opportunities to do service for others. 

“ I will say in conclusion, keep green the memories of 
your days at Troy, and do not forget your associations here, 
nor your obligations to your instructors. The memory of 
your R. P. I. life will be a permanent asset, contributing to 
your profession in such a way as to be an honor to your 
Alma Mater.” 


89 






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-.- ‘•'5- >.t * • - • ^ 

vT '• •'/' i 

*, 4 ' ; 7 , 


Class of 1912 






TITLES OF THESES 


OF THE 

Graduating Class of 1909 

READ AT ALUMNI BUILDING 

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Monday 
June 9, 10, II, 12 and 14, 1909. 



1. Design for a Six Story Reinforced Concrete Cold Storage Plant, 
80 ft. X 125 ft. 

WALTER ABBE, JR., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

2. Design for a Locomotive Erecting and Machine Shop, 128x400 
ft., with a Crane of 120 Tons Capacity. 

WALTER RUSSELL ABBOTT, Watervliet, N. 

3. Design for a Double Track, Riveted, Deck, Pratt Truss Rail¬ 
road Bridge with a Steel Floor System. Span 172 ft. 

WILLIAM JOHN ABBOTT, Smyrna, N. Y. 

4. Design for a Separate System of Sewers and Disposal Plant 
for Highland Falls, N. Y. Population 10,000. 

JOSEPH HENRY ADOLPH, Highland Falls, N. Y. 

5. Design for a Double Track, Through, Pratt Truss Railroad 
Bridge. Span 175 ft. 

LANGFORD TAYLOR ALDEN, Troy, N. Y. 

6. Design for the Steel Frame of a Marble Mill, 70 x 420 ft., with 
a Crane of 30 tons Capacity. 

ERVIN WILBER ANDREWS, Wallingford, Vt. 

7. Design for a Separate System of Sewers and Disposal Plant 
for Rensselaer, N. Y. Population 15,000. 

HILEY NEWTON ARMER, Ballston Spa, N. Y. 


91 


8. Design for a Double Track, Through, Riveted, Railroad Bridge 
with Polygonal Upper Chord and Secondary System. Span 
i86 ft. 

CHARLES DAVID BABCOCK, Cattaraugus, N. Y. 

9. Design for the Proposed Dry Dock No. 5, at the Brooklyn 
Navy Yard. Dock 1,000 ft. long. 

ALBERT ASA BAKER, Antrim, N. H. 

10. Design for a Separate System of Sewers for the Southern Part 
of Utica, N. Y. Drainage Area, Three Square Miles. 

JOHN HENRY BALDWIN, New Orleans, La. 

11. Design for a Single Track, Through, Riveted, Quadrangular 
Truss Railroad Bridge with Secondary System and Trough 
Floor. Span 165 ft. 

JAMES RAYMOND BARNARD, Honeoye Falls, N. Y. 

12. Design for a Single Track, Through, Pin Connected Draw 
Bridge. Span 255 ft. 

PENDLETON BEALL, San Antonio, Texas. 



13. Design for a Double Track, Through, Riveted, Quadrangular 
Truss Railroad Bridge with Secondary System. Span 180 ft. 

WILLIAM BEIERMEISTER, Troy, N. Y. 

14. Design for a Separate System of Sewers and Disposal Plant for 
the City of Sagna, Cuba, Population 10,000. 

EMANUEL LEO BOLANO, B.A., Mantanzas, Cuba. 

15. Design for a Two-Story Steel Warehouse and Dock. Ware¬ 
house 98 X 760 ft. Dock 112 X 790 ft. 

CHARLES FOWLER BORNEFELD, Galveston, Texas. 

16. Design for the Development of the Water Power at Salmon 
River Falls, and its electrical Transmission to the West Shore 
Railroad between Utica and Syracuse, N. Y. 12,000 H. P. 

TIMOTHY JAMES BUCKLEY, Altmar, N. Y. 

17. Design for a Separate System of Sewers and Disposal Plant 
for Amsterdam, N. Y. Population 10,000. 

CHARLES DOW CALKINS, Troy, N. Y. 


92 








18. Design for the Steel Frame of a Mill Building, no x 300 ft., 
with an Electric Crane of 40 tons Capacity. 

HAROLD EDWIN CURTIS, Troy, N. Y. 

19. Economic Study of a Pipe Line for Crude Oil, together with 
Pumping Stations, between Mooringsport, La., and Port 
Arthur, Texas. Distance, 200 miles. 

ALLEN STEWART DAVISON, Pittsburg, Pa. 

20. Design for a Single Track, Through, Pratt Truss Railroad 
Bridge, with Secondary System. Span 192 ft. 

RAYMOND EDWIN DEMMING, Lyons, N. Y. 

21. Design for a Separate System of Sewers and Disposal Plant 
for Seneca Falls, N. Y. Population 12,000. 

JOHN HENRY EGLOF, Troy, N. Y. 



22. Design for a Bascule Bridge of the Strauss Type to replace the 
present Draw Spans of the N. Y. C. & H. R. R. Co. at Albany, 
N. Y. Span 174 ft. 

WILLIAM CHESTER EMIGH, North Adams, Mass. 

23. Design for a Water Tower, Tank and Pump; Fleight of Tower, 
100 ft.; Diameter of Tank, 14 ft.. Height, 20 ft. 

OLNEY NORMAN FOOTE, Mount Morns, N. Y. 

24. Design for the Steel Frame of a Ten-Story Office Building, 
60 X 90 ft. 

STEWART EUGENE FROST, Brattleboro, Vt. 

25. Design for a Granite and Concrete Graving Dock, and Pro¬ 
tection Works for Excavation. Dock 1,000 ft. long by 36 
ft. deep. 

ROBERT SAMUEL FURBER, Northfield, Minn. 

26 Design for the Steel Frame of a Twelve Story Office Building, 
75 X 100 ft. 

WILLIAM FREDERICK GEIGER, Troy, N. Y. 

27. Design for a Separate System of Sewers with two Pumping 
Stations and Disposal Plant for Woodmere, L. I. Popula¬ 
tion 10,000. 

LESLIE PAUL GIFFORD, Valley Falls, N. Y. 


93 


2 8. Design for a Single Track, Deck, Riveted, Quadrangular Truss 
Railroad Bridge, with Secondary System and Wooden Floor 
Span. 

RALPH ADOLPHUS GOVE, Jr., Loudonville, N. Y. 

29. Design for a Reinforced Concrete Grain Elevator and Power 
Plant. 

HARRY RIDDELL HAYES, Utica, N. Y. 

30. Design for the Elimination of the Grade Crossing at the 
Intersection of the N. Y., N. H. & H. R. R. with Center and 
West Park Streets, at Lee, Mass. 

HARRY WILLIAM HEAPHY, Lee, Mass. 

31. Economic Study for Determining the Feasibility of Eliminating 
the Hogback Summit of the Buffalo and Susquehanna Rail¬ 
road by means of a Tunnel. 

BYRON VOLTAIRE HERDEN, Wellsboro, Pa. 

32. Design for a Roller and Ice Skating Rink, including an Ice 
Plant. Building 90 x 200 ft. 

GEORGE HOLLAND JONES, Albany, N. Y. 

33. Design for a Through, Highway, Pin Connected Baltimore 
Truss Bridge. Span 210 ft. 

ELDA LOUIS KIMMEY, Troy, N. Y. 



34. Design for a Separate System of Sewers and Disposal Plant 
for Blankville, N. Y. Population 10,000. 

CHESTER SHERMAN LEE, Troy, N. Y. 

35. Design for a Separate System of Sewers and Disposal Plant 
for Fulton, N. Y. Population 15,000. . 

EDMOND FITZGERALD LUDDEN, Troy, N. Y. 

36. Design for a Separate System of Sewers and Disposal Plant 
for El Carro, Havana, Cuba. 

JOAQUIM MARIA MANZANILLA, Havana, Cuba. 

37. Design for a Double Track, Riveted, Pratt Truss Railroad 
Bridge. Span 162 ft. 

JOSEPH JUSTO MANZANILLA, Havana, Cuba. 


94 


38. Investigation Concerning Hardness of Filter Sands, and Notes 
upon Sundry Water Supply Questions. 

ALFRED KINGSLEY MARTIN, C.E., Troy, N. Y. 

39. Design for a Separate System of Sewers and Disposal Plant 
for Haverstraw, N. Y. Population 12,000. 

FRANK WILLIAM McCAULEY, Haverstraw, N. Y. 

40. Design for a steel Viaduct across Cotton Factory Hollow to 
connect Mount Pleasant and Schenectady, N. Y, Length 
650 ft. 

FREDERICK STEWART McCUNE, Schenectady, N. Y. 

41. Design for a Double Track, Pin Connected, Through Railroad 
Bridge with Polygonal Upper Chord. Span 240 ft. 

CROSBY JAQUITH McGIFFERT, Kingston, N. Y. 

42. Design for a Separate System of Sewers and Disposal Plant 
for Circleville, Ohio. Population 14,000. 

LOUIS ZEREGA MEARNS, Troy, N. Y. 



43. Design for a Separate System of Sewers and Disposal Plant 
for Sandy Hill, N. Y. Population 12,000. 

CHARLES EDWARD MERRITT, Marlboro, N. Y. 

44. Design for a Steel Light Station for Lloyd Point, Long Island 
Sound. Height 127 ft. 

HERBERT EUGENE MILLER, Whitestone, N. Y. 

45. Design for a Single Track, Deck, Pratt Truss Railroad Bridge. 
Span 168 ft. 

MALCOLM STAATS MILLER, Castleton, N. Y. 

46. Design for the Steel Frame of an Office Building, 75 x 135 x 87 
ft. high. 

JOSEPH EDWARD MINCHER, Cohoes, N. Y. 

47. Design for a Deck, Riveted, Warren Truss, Highway Bridge 
with Sub-verticals and Buckle-plate Floor. Span 155 ft. 

GEORGE ROLAND MOORE, Manasquan, N. J. 

48. Design for a Separate Sy.stem of Sewers and Disposal Plant 
for Flushing, L. I. Population 15,000. 

LEONARD KYRAN MOYLAN, Troy, N. Y. 


95 



49- Design for a Hydro-Electric Power Plant on Rondout Creek, 
at High Falls, N. Y. 1,200 H. P. 

JOHN CARLETON MURRAY, Delhi, N. Y. 

50. Design for a Double Track, Through, Riveted, Railroad 
Bridge with Curved Upper Chord. Span 184 ft. 

THOMAS STANLEY O’BRIEN, JR., Albany, N. Y. 

51. Design for a Separate System of Sewers and Disposal Plant 
for North Plainfield, N. J. Population 12,000. 

CHARLES WING PARSONS, Albany, N. Y. 

52. Design for a Single Track, Railroad Viaduct 552 ft. long, con¬ 
sisting of Plate Girders and one Deck Pratt Truss. 

GUY MERRITT PHELPS, Glens Falls, N. Y. 



53. Design for a Draw Bridge with Inclined Upper Chord and 
Secondary System to replace the present Draw Spans of the 
N. Y. C. & H. R. R. Co. at Albany, N. Y. Length of Swing, 
368 ft. 

WILLIAM JOSEPH POPP, Albany, N. Y. 

54. Design for a Double Track, Deck, Riveted, Railroad Bridge, 

. with three Warren Trusses, Sub verticals and Wooden Floor 

Svstem. Span 162 ft. 

JOHN MURRAY PRIOR, Albany, N. Y. 

55. Design for the Hydro-Electric Power Development of the Deer¬ 
field River at Shelburne Falls, Mass. 2,500 H. P. 

LOUIS BLACKMER PUFFER, Bennington, Vt. 

56. • Design for the improvement of Atares Bay, Havana Harbor, 

Cuba, consisting of Sea Walls, Dredging, Dock and Warehouse 
64 X 192 ft. 

FRANCISCO PUJALS y CLARET, Havana, Cuba. 

57. Design for a Steel Mill Building, 198 x 130 ft., with a Crane of 
40 tons Capacity. 

HORACE WAYLAND RINEARSON, Hamilton, O. 

58. Design for a Separate System of Sewers and Disposal Plant 
for Fort Edward, N. Y. Population 10,000. 

WILLIAM ARTHUR ROGERS, Fort Edward, N. Y. 


96 


59- Design for a Separate System of Sewers and Disposal plant 
for Mitchell, S. D. Population 10,000. 

EDGAR KINGSBURY RUTH, B.S., Mitchell, S. D. 

60. Design for the Steel Frame of a Twelve Story Office Building, 
75 X 150 ft. 

JAMES FRANCIS SCANLON, Plattsburg, N. Y. 

61. Design for a Steel Mill Building, 90 x 192 ft., with a Crane of 
40 Tons Capacity. 

HORACE LESLIE SCOTT, Brattleboro, Vt. 

62. Design for the Development of the Water Power of the Genesee 
River near Portageville, N. Y. 20,000 H. P. 

WALTER VANDERBILT SCOTT, Geneseo, N. Y. 

63. Design for a Single Track, Through, Triple Intersection.Riveted 
Railroad Bridge. Span 168 ft. 

ROBERT ASHLEY SEARLE, Troy, N. Y. 

64. Design for a Reinforced Concrete Arch Bridge. Span 125 ft., 
width 56 ft., rise 18 ft. 

RALPH GRAHAM SHANKLAND, Chicago, Ill. 

65. Design for an Electrical Power Plant for the United States 
Naval Station at Guantanamo, Cuba. 3,000 H. P. 

NORMAN MURRAY SMITH, Williston, S. C. 



66. Design for a Lift Bridge to replace the present Draw Spans 
of the N. Y. C. & H. R. R. Co. at Albany, N. Y. Span 175 ft. 

JOHN HENRY SPENGLER, Kansas City, Mo. 

67. Design for a Single Track, Railroad Viaduct, consisting of 
two Deck Warren Truss Spans and four Plate Girder Spans.' 
Total length 630 ft. 

WILLIAM MATTHEW STIEVE, Albany, N. Y. 

68. Design for the Steel Frame of an Eight Story Office Building, 
42 X 120 ft. 

KARL OTTO STRENGE, Albany, N. Y. 

69. Design for the Elimination of the Grade Crossing at Culver 
Road, Rochester, N. Y. 

LOUIS PAUL STUTZ, Albany, N. Y. 


97 



70 . 


Design for a Concrete Dam and Locks with Operating 
Machinery, on the Monongahela River at Brownsville, Pa. 

OTTO JORDAN SWENSSON, Pittsburg, Pa. 

71. Design for the Power Development of Boulder Creek, Boulder,, 
Col. 20,000 H. P. 

DAVID BRIER TAYLOR, Washington. D. C. 

72. Design for a Three Hinged Steel Arch Roof Truss. Span 
150 ft., rise 60 ft. 

HENRY LOUIS THIESSEN, Troy, N. Y. 

73. Design for a Separate System of Sewers and Disposal Plant 
for the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn, N. Y. Population 
50,000. 

MAURICE LESTER TROEGER, New York, N. Y. 

74. Design for a Separate System of Sewers and Disposal Plant 
for Waterford and Northside, N. Y. Population 10,000. 

EDWIN GORDON VAN DERWERKEN, Cohoes, N. Y. 

75. Design for a Separate System of Sewers and Disposal Plant 
for the Village of Mechanicville, N. Y. Population 12,000. 

JOHN EDWARD WALSH, A.B., Mechanicville, N. Y. 

76. Design for a Single Track, Through, Riveted, Railroad Bridge 
with Polygonal Upper Chord and Secondary System. Span 
180 ft. 

THOMAS THORPE WALSH, Baltimore, Md. 

77. Design for a Double Track, Deck, Riveted, Quadrangular 
Truss Railroad Bridge with Subdivided Panels and Trough 
Floor. Span 174 ft. 

THOMAS LEWIS WAY, Johnstown, N. Y. 

78. Design for a Rolling Lift Bridge of the Scherzer Type to replace 
the present Draw Spans of the N. Y. C. & H. R. R. Co. at 
Albany, N. Y. Span 173 ft. 

FRANK RODERIC WEAVER, Johnstown, Pa. 

79. Design for the Elimination of the Grade Crossing of the 
B. & S. R. R. over the B. R. & P. R. R. at Sykesville, Pa. 

DANIEL RISHEL WEBER, Sykesville, Pa. 

80. Design for a Single Track, Quadruple Intersection, Through 
Railroad Bridge. Span 180 ft. 

HARRY AMBROSE WILLIS, Troy, N. Y. 



98 




The Executive Committee of the Rensselaer Union 







Charles van Benthuysen & Sons 


PRINTERS, ALBANY, 


N. Y. 




ROADS RAIL ROADS BRIDGES WATER WORKS 

SEWERS RIVERS CANALS ROOFS 

ARCHES TUNNELS FOUNDyVTIONS 

BOILERS STEAM ENGINES STEAM TURBINES 

GAS ENGINES SHIPS HEATING 

REFRIGERATION SHOP-MANAGEMENT 

ELECTRIC-MACHINERY DYNAMOS TELEPHONES 

ELECTRIC LIGHTING ELECTRIC-TRANSMISSION 
ELECTRO-CHEMISTRY 

MINERALOGY METALLURGY ASSAYING 

CHEMICAL-ANALYSIS 






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